594,196 fifteen-year-olds, 77 countries: girls experience less physical & verbal victimization & have stronger anti-bullying attitudes; physical victims have less –not more--anti-bullying attitudes

Marsh, Herb, Jiesi Guo, Philip D. Parker, Reinhard Pekrun, Geetanjali Basarkod, Theresa Dicke, Roberto H. Parada, et al. 2021. “An Integrative Review of Cross-national Comparisons of Verbal, Relational, and Physical Peer Victimization: Gender Differences, Paradoxical Anti-bullying Attitudes, and Well-being.” PsyArXiv. November 23. doi:10.31234/osf.io/qfmek

Abstract: Current victimization studies and meta-analyses are based mainly on a unidimensional perspective in a few developed OECD countries. This provides a weak basis for generalizability over multiple victimization (relational, verbal, physical) components and different countries. We test the cross-national generalizability (594,196 fifteen-year-olds; 77 countries) of competing victimization models. In support of our three-component model, differentiating the multiple components of victimization facilitated understanding: gender differences (girls experience less physical and verbal victimization and stronger anti-bullying attitudes, but relational differences are small); paradoxical anti-bullying attitudes (physical victims have less –not more--anti-bullying attitudes); and well-being (policy/practice focuses primarily on physical victimization, but verbal and relational victimization effects are larger). These key findings provide theoretical advances with implications for policy, practice, and intervention.