Psychosomatic Problems and their Relation with Types of Involvement in School Bullying in Iranian Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: There are few studies on the association between bullying types and psychosomatic issues in pupils. The current study aimed to examine the association of verbal, relational, physical, and cyber bullying with psychosomatic problems among students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in northern Iran on 834 participants, which were in 8th and 9th grades in 2014. Bullying and psychosomatic problems were measured by the Iranian-version of the Olweus Bullying and the Health and Illness Questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and multilevel logistic regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results: Findings revealed that bad temper was the most prevalent psychosomatic problem and the prevalence of headache (P=0.021), feeling low (P=0.009), bad temperedness (P=0.004), nervousness (P<0.001), sadness (P=0.001), and anxiety (P<0.001) was higher in girls than boys. Only-bullies and bully-victims in the verbal form, and only-victims and bully-victims in the physical form had more psychosomatic issues. Difficulties in getting to sleep, anxiety, feeling low, dizziness, sadness, and headache were the most common conditions related to the types of bullying. For instance, the risk of difficulties in getting to sleep increased 1.5 to 3 times among the victims of verbal bullying (OR=1.54 for only-victim, OR=2.22 for bully-victims, and OR=3.08 for onlybully), relational only-bully (OR=2.69), physical only-victim and bully-victim, cyber only-bully and only-victim. Conclusions: The results showed the different psychological and somatic burdens associated with various types of bullying. Therefore, it is necessary to implement preventive and interventional programs so as to reduce bullying behaviors in Iran. Implications of these findings for health care professionals, educational systems, and parents were further discussed.