Sociodemographic Factors Predicting School and Electronic Bullying Among Young People in the United States

Background/Purpose: Bullying among young people is a growing concern due to its devastating impacts on the victim’s physical and emotional wellbeing. The primary purpose of the current study is to examine the association of race, ethnicity, gender, and other sociodemographic variables with in-school and cyber-bullying. Methods This cross-sectional study uses data on 13,677 students from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) Survey. To examine the association of each of the sociodemographic variables, after controlling for other covariates in the model, logistic regression analyses (to control for socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, race/ethnicity. Results: Twenty-one percent of students were bullied on school property during the past 12 months, whereas 15.9% were bullied in cyberspace. Students 12 years or younger had the highest odds of being bullied in school (AOR, 40.0; CI, 4.8-331.4, p Conclusion: Our study showed disparities in bullying concerning sociodemographic factors. Anti-bullying programs that are tailored to race, age, and other unique needs should be developed. This may increase the adoption of such programs in different school settings