Peer victimization of Indian students: Prevalence and correlates

Objectives: To examine the overlap of traditional and cyber victimization and the relationship between victimization and self-esteem of college and university students. Methodology: The study utilized a cross-sectional online survey design to measure the self-reported experiences of peer victimization of higher education students. The multidimensional bullying and cyberbullying scale and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used to measure traditional and cyber victimization and self-esteem, respectively. The study was cleared by the Institutional Ethics Committee. Results: A total of 854 complete responses were included in the study (mean age = 21.6 years, standard deviation = 3.55) and a little more than three-fourths of the participants were females (76.7%). The overall prevalence of victimization of any type of bullying was 44.6%. Offline victimization was more common and overall, 40.9% reported being victimized offline, while 23.3% reported being victimized online in the last 3 months, respectively. There was considerable overlap between various types of victimization, and the correlations between cyberbullying, physical, verbal, and relational bullying were moderate (range 0.41–0.56). Most were bullied by known people and friends (28.1%). Only a small proportion considered reporting the bullying to the authorities (10.7%). No link between problematic technology use and cyber victimization was found. A one-way Analysis of variance revealed that victims of both types of bullying had the lowest self-esteem score (F = 9.04, P = 0.0001). Conclusions: Public health policymakers need to focus on positive youth development to foster resilience in the face of adversity and help young adults to thrive and flourish in a rapidly expanding and evolving digital world.