A recent international study has suggested a correlation between bullying victimization and risky sexual behaviors in young adolescents.
The relationships appear to be dose-dependent, the authors said in their recent Journal of Sexual Medicine study.
Researchers examined data from 145,342 students between the ages of 12 and 15 from 53 countries. The students’ average age was 13.8 years. All were participants in the Global School-based Health Survey between 2003 and 2016. Boys made up just over half the group, with girls making up the remainder.
The participants were asked about the number of days they had been bullied during the previous 30 days. They were also asked whether they had ever had intercourse, whether they or their partner had used a condom the last time they had intercourse, and how many sexual partners they had had in their lifetime. Participants who had had two or more partners were considered to have had multiple partners.
Among the entire group, almost 29% of the respondents said they had been bullied during the previous 30 days. Just over 13% had had sexual intercourse.
Among those who had had intercourse, 44% reported using a condom at their last encounter, and almost 52% had had multiple sex partners over their lifetime.
Students who had been bullied were more likely to have had intercourse. For example, 10.7% of the participants who had not been bullied at all during the previous 30 days said they had had intercourse. But for those who had been bullied 20-30 days during that time period, the rate was 26.2%.
Similar trends were discovered for condom non-use and multiple sex partners among participants who had had intercourse. As the intensity of bullying increased, the likelihood of these outcomes also increased.
Compared to students who had not been bullied, those who had been bullied in the preceding 20-30 days were:
- 2.08 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse
- 1.70 times more likely to report condom non-use at their last sexual encounter
- 1.72 times more likely to have multiple sex partners
The authors offered several possible explanations for their findings. Participants might have been coerced into having sex, or they might have seen risky sexual activities as ways to deal with negative experiences or gain popularity. They also might have been lacking parental support.
There were limitations to the research, the authors acknowledged. It was unclear whether bullying prompted risky sexual behavior or vice versa. Researchers did not know whether sexual activity involved penetration or not or whether the participants were victims of other types of violence. There was also no information on the participants’ sexual orientations, which might have been associated with bullying.
“The findings highlight the need for interventions either acting to educate about the potential negative consequences or to prevent risky sexual behavior in young adolescents who experience bullying victimization,” the authors wrote.
Resources
The Journal of Sexual Medicine
Smith, Lee, PhD, et al.
“Bullying Victimization and Sexual Behavior Among Adolescents Aged 12–15 Years From 53 Countries: A Global Perspective”
(Published: September 5, 2020)
https://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(20)30877-8/fulltext