Longitudinal Association between Bullying Victimization and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Early Adolescents: The Effect of Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Bullying victimization is associated with an increased risk of depression among adolescents. However, few studies have examined the association between bullying victimization and depressive symptoms, the impact of particular dimensions of life satisfaction on this relationship, and whether these associations vary by gender. A multilevel model (MLM) was used to explore the relationship between 1,611 Chinese early adolescents’ incidence of bullying victimization and depression and life satisfaction’s effect on this relationship (60.5% boys, Mage = 12.48, SD = 0.48 at baseline). Bullying victimization was found to predict a high risk of depression in early adolescence. Further, we observed that life satisfaction mitigated the relationship between bullying victimization and depression; the MLM analysis indicated that these associations somewhat differed between genders. This study emphasized—based on ecological theory—four special dimensions of life satisfaction and bullying victimization in relation to depression risk. Additionally, this study provides novel insights into the correlation between bullying victimization and depression among Chinese early adolescents.