Bullying Victimization and Mental Health among Migrant Children in Urban China: A Moderated Mediation Model of School Belonging and Resilience

Wei Nie, Liru Gao and Kunjie Cui
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Wei Nie: Institute of Urban Governance, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Liru Gao: Department of Social Work, School of Law, Nanjing University of Finance & Economics, Nanjing 210023, China
Kunjie Cui: Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: School bullying victimization among children is a significant public health issue that may negatively influence their mental health. However, few studies have been conducted on the bullying of migrant children in urban China. A positive psychological perspective has rarely been adopted in examining the mechanisms through which bullying victimization influences mental health, and the protective factors remain understudied. This research investigates the factors that may contribute to reducing the negative effects of bullying victimization on mental health, focusing on the protective roles of school belonging and resilience in the association between bullying victimization and mental health. Data were collected from 1087 school-aged migrant children in Shanghai and Nanjing, China. The PROCESS macro was used to conduct moderated mediation analyses to test the hypothesized models. The results of moderated mediation modeling revealed that bullying victimization (β = −0.386, p < 0.001) was negatively linked with mental health through decreased school belonging (β = 0.398, p < 0.001). Moreover, resilience buffered the indirect negative effects of bullying victimization on migrant children’s mental health via school belonging (β = −0.460, p < 0.01). Specifically, lower resilience was clearly associated with stronger indirect effects. Our findings suggest that school belonging and resilience must be incorporated into mental health prevention and intervention programs targeting migrant children with bullying victimization experiences.

Keywords: bullying victimization; migrant children; urban China; school belonging; resilience; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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