Bullying and subjective well-being: A hierarchical socioeconomical status analysis of Chilean adolescents

Abstract

Inequality is a major concern for governments and policymakers in poor’s and developing countries. High levels of inequity negatively affect the lives of children and adolescents and their subjective well-being (SWB). Moreover, bullying behavior also harm the SWB of its victims. Previous studies have examined the negative consequences of bullying, but have failed to consider socioeconomic status (SES) and the nested effects of the school. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of bullying on SWB by considering the role of SES at the school level. We examined a sample of 1,914 adolescents from 26 schools in two Chilean regions (mean age: 11.54 years; 47.1% female) using Hierarchical Linear Modeling with different subjective well-being measures at the student level. We used the type of school (private versus public) and socioeconomic status. Our results indicate a negative relationship between bullying and different measures of SWB. SES appears to be negatively related at the school level on well-being, which evidences other features to be considered in relation to prevention. This is evidence of the negative effects of levels of risk and inequality in Chilean schools on the subjective well-being of adolescents.