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Exposure to Bullying Among Adolescents Across Nine Countries

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Abstract

Bullying is not included in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria (Criteria A, APA, 2013) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), however, several studies have demonstrated the association between bullying (including those being the bully, victim) and PTSD. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between bullying and PTSD and suicide attempts among adolescents across nine countries. A total of 4051 adolescents with a mean age of 14.9 years found that 36.6% of the adolescents reported exposure to bullying. There were some gender differences across countries. Bullying was significantly associated with PTSD symptoms and suicide attempts among the adolescents. National prevention plans and interventions are needed to prevent bullying.

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Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to all participants who gave us their full cooperation during the data collection. Authors wish to thank Siobhan Murphy for assistance with editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Yoke Yong Chen

  2. Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Malaysia Sarawak, 94300, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Yoke Yong Chen

  3. Department of Psychology, National Centre for Psychotraumatology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

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  1. Yoke Yong Chen
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Correspondence to Yoke Yong Chen.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Centre for Psychotraumatology University of Southern Denmark: Grant No UNIMAS L18403 F05 00 PTSD.

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All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation [institutional and national] and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Chen, Y.Y., Elklit, A. Exposure to Bullying Among Adolescents Across Nine Countries. Journ Child Adol Trauma 11, 121–127 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-017-0172-x

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