1 in 4 high school students in the US experience bullying while 1 in 9 face sexual violence, says CDC
High school students in the US experience unacceptable rates of interpersonal violence. While 1 in 4 experience bullying, 1 in 8 experience dating violence and 1 in 9 report having faced sexual violence, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Interpersonal violence or aggression perpetrated by another person, including dating violence, sexual violence and bullying, is a serious public health problem for students, schools and communities in the US. Health experts used the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data for 2019 to examine physical and sexual dating violence, sexual violence by anyone, and bullying victimization of US high school students by sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity.
The YRBS is a cross-sectional, school-based survey conducted biennially since 1991. Each survey year, CDC collects data from a nationally representative sample of public and private school students in grades 9-12 in the 50 US states and the District of Columbia (13,677). The current analysis includes five standard measures of violence victimization: having experienced physical dating violence, having experienced sexual dating violence, having experienced sexual violence by anyone, having been bullied on school property, and having been bullied electronically.
Researchers found that among the approximately two-thirds of US high school students who reported dating during the 12 months before the survey, 8.2% reported experiencing physical dating violence, and 8.2% experienced sexual dating violence. Sexual violence victimization perpetrated by anyone during the 12 months before the survey was reported by 10.8% of students. When comparing the sexual dating violence measure with the sexual violence by anyone measure, half (50%) of the 10.8% of students who reported sexual violence by anyone were victimized only by someone other than a dating partner.
Experiences of bullying victimization during the 12 months before the survey varied, with 15.7% of students reporting experiencing electronic bullying and 19.5% reporting bullying on school property. For all violence victimization measures, the prevalence varied by both sex and sexual identity, and variation by race/ethnicity was only observed for bullying victimization.
Specifically, female students, lesbian, gay and bisexual students, and students not sure of their sexual identity consistently had the highest prevalence across all five of the violence victimization indicators. Besides, compared to Hispanic or Black students, White students had the highest prevalence of experiencing bullying victimization at school and electronic bullying. The prevalence of electronic bullying among Hispanic students was also significantly greater than the prevalence among Black students.
"Approximately one in eight students reported any dating violence, and one in four reported any bullying victimization. All five types of victimization, including any or both forms of dating violence and any form of bullying, were more common among female and sexual minority students, highlighting their more frequent victimization. Half of the students who reported sexual violence victimization by anyone did not report sexual violence by a dating partner, indicating that students who experience sexual violence are often victimized by someone other than a dating partner," say researchers.
They add, "Indeed, perpetrators of sexual violence during youth can be acquaintances, family members, persons in a position of authority and strangers, in addition to dating partners. This indicates that efforts might need to be focused on preventing sexual violence both inside and outside the context of dating relationships to be most helpful."
Among students who experienced physical dating violence, sexual dating violence, or sexual violence by anyone during the previous year, the most common frequency reported was one time for each, reveals the study. Males who experienced dating violence or sexual violence reported high frequencies of victimization substantially more often than did females. This implies that while male students do not report a higher prevalence of victimization than female students, when they do report it, they report experiencing it at a higher frequency.
"The frequency of physical and sexual dating violence varied significantly by sex. Specifically, the prevalence of physical dating violence was significantly greater at higher frequency levels (greater than or equal to 4 times) among male students compared with female students (41.6% versus 21.6%, respectively). This frequency distribution pattern was similar for sexual dating violence. The prevalence at the higher end of frequency for sexual dating violence was significantly greater for male students compared with female students (41% versus 20.8%, respectively)," the findings state.
Higher frequency (4 times or more) was also reported for sexual violence by anyone for male students compared with female students (33.9% versus 18.6%, respectively). No significant differences existed by race/ethnicity in the frequency of physical and sexual dating violence or sexual violence by anyone.
Overall, 12.2% of students experienced any type of dating violence victimization, and 3% experienced both types. Both dating violence composite measures varied substantially by sex and sexual identity but not by race/ethnicity. "The prevalence of the dating violence composite variables was significantly greater for female students compared with male students (16.4% versus 8.2% for any dating violence type; 3.8% versus 2.1% for both dating violence types)," shows analysis. Students who did not identify as heterosexual had a substantially greater prevalence of both dating violence composites.
For any type of dating violence, the prevalence was 22.3% for lesbian, gay, and bisexual students and 18.7% for students who were not sure of their sexual identity versus 10.5% for heterosexual students. For both types of dating violence, the prevalence was 5.8% for lesbian, gay, and bisexual students and 9.4% for students not sure of their sexual identity versus 2.4% for heterosexual students.
According to the authors, the prevalence of experiencing any type of bullying victimization was 24.8%, and it varied significantly by sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity. "The prevalence of experiencing any bullying victimization was significantly greater for female students compared with male students (30.2% versus 19.2%, respectively) and significantly greater for white (28.8%) compared with black (18.0%) or Hispanic (19.2%) students. Both lesbian, gay and bisexual students (39.5%) and students not sure of their sexual identity (32.7%) had a significantly higher prevalence of any bullying compared with heterosexual students (22.2%), with lesbian, gay and bisexual students reporting greater prevalence than students not sure of their sexual identity," they explain.
According to the CDC, the report can be used by public health professionals to guide prevention efforts with youths in schools and communities. The team emphasizes that overall, the findings highlight the importance of early engagement in effective, evidence-based efforts for preventing violence victimization and perpetration before they begin or stopping them from continuing. Findings from this study also demonstrate substantial differences in exposure to these types of violence by sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity, highlighting the need for prevention efforts that address the unique needs of these groups, they add.
To increase understanding of the differential experiences of adolescent interpersonal violence victimization, future research that focuses in more detail on the demographic groups highlighted in this study can be beneficial, says the team. They suggest that the prevention of interpersonal violence among adolescents might be most successful when a comprehensive strategy is used that addresses these adverse childhood experiences at multiple levels of the social ecology simultaneously and recognizes that these different forms of victimization can be co-occurring.
The development of safe and supportive environments in schools that promote protective factors -- for example, school connectedness and professional development regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender -- can help create accepting school environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths and reduce the risk for bullying and other violence, recommend investigators.
"Modifying the social and physical environment in schools and neighborhoods might improve safety and reduce the risk of violence for more of the population than individual- or relationship-level approaches alone. For example, one school-based prevention approach that includes a building-level intervention (such as addressing physical areas in the school identified by students as less safe) has been reported to reduce sexual violence victimization and perpetration by peers and dating partners," say authors.