The effects of school bullying victimization on the development of adolescent depression across genders: a hierarchical linear model analysis.

BACKGROUND

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to depression. This longitudinal study examines gender differences in the developmental trajectories of depressive symptoms and investigates how school bullying victimization influences these trajectories across genders. METHOD: A total of 1,260 adolescents (58.3% female) participated in this study. Bullying victimization and depressive symptoms were measured by self-report at three waves spaced 6 months apart. We used gender as a grouping variable and fit two-level hierarchical linear models (HLM). Level 1 represented within-person change over time, while level 2 modeled between-person factors, including three types of bullying victimization.

RESULTS

HLM results indicated that girls had a higher mean baseline level of depressive symptoms than boys. Depressive symptoms increased over time among boys (β = 0.566, p = 0.006) but decreased among girls (β = −0.618, p < 0.001). At baseline, physical bullying (β = 2.894, p = 0.001) and relational bullying (β = 2.336, p = 0.002) were associated with higher depressive symptoms in boys. In girls, relational bullying was associated with higher baseline depressive symptoms (β = 3.715, p < 0.001) and a more negative time slope (β = −1.023, p = 0.004).

CONCLUSION

This study revealed the relationships between depression and different forms of bullying between male and female adolescents, providing insights for developing personalized strategies to reduce adolescent depression by considering individual-level factors and longitudinal changes over time.