Abstract

Bullying victimization is associated with poor health-related outcomes, including sleeping problems. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of bullying victimization on sleep difficulty, and the moderating effect of the number of close friends on this association, also exploring differences across genders. The study was based on a nationally-representative survey on adolescent health conducted in Brazilian schools, involving a total of 109,104 participants, enrolled at the 9th year in 2012. The measures used in the analysis included socio-demographic characteristics, bullying victimization, sleep difficulty, and number of close friends. In the multilevel models, reporting more peer victimization was associated with more sleep difficulties (b = .18, t = 50.17, p < .05), with girls reporting more sleep difficulties in association with peer victimization than boys. Reporting having more friends was inversely linked to sleep difficulties (b = −.08, t = −15.26, p < .05), and the association between peer victimization and sleep difficulties was significantly buffered by the number of friends. Moreover, in a three way interaction, there was a marginally significant difference in the effect of friends on the link between victimization and sleep difficulties between boys and girls (b = .02, t = 1.86, p = .06), with the buffering effect of friendships being negligible among girls as opposed to boys. The results indicate a significant association between bullying victimization and sleep difficulties, which seems to be more pronounced among girls, also suggesting that the number of close friends may buffer this association, mainly for boys.

摘要

欺凌受害与健康相关的不良后果有关，包括睡眠问题。本研究旨在调查欺凌受害对睡眠困难的影响，以及亲密朋友数量对这种关联的调节作用，还探讨了性别差异。该研究基于在巴西学校进行的全国性青少年健康调查，共涉及 109,104 名参与者，于 2012 年第 9 年入学。分析中使用的衡量标准包括社会人口特征、欺凌受害、睡眠困难，以及密友的数量。在多级模型中，报告更多的同伴受害与更多的睡眠困难相关（b = .18，t = 50.17，p< .05），女孩报告的与同龄人受害相关的睡眠困难比男孩多。报告拥有更多朋友与睡眠困难呈负相关（b = -.08，t = -15.26，p < .05），并且同伴受害与睡眠困难之间的关联受到朋友数量的显着缓冲。此外，在三向交互中，朋友对男孩和女孩之间受害和睡眠困难之间的联系的影响略显着差异（b = .02，t = 1.86，p= .06)，与男孩相比，女孩之间友谊的缓冲作用可以忽略不计。结果表明欺凌受害与睡眠困难之间存在显着关联，这在女孩中似乎更为明显，也表明密友的数量可能缓冲这种关联，主要是男孩。