Are left-behind children more likely to be bullied? Empirical evidence from rural schools in Shaanxi province

Abstract School bullying has been recognized as a serious social issue associated with a range of short- and long-term negative consequences for both perpetrators and victims. Using data from the 2017 Survey of Rural Children in Shaanxi Province of China, this study investigated the impact of parental migration on children’s victimization from bullying. Our results show that left-behind children (LBC) are indeed more likely to be bullied; most importantly, any type of parental migration (previous migration, current one-parent migration, and current both-parents migration) would increase the risk of children being bullied, but there are no significant differences within different types of LBC; and further parental migration has a much stronger effect on bullying victimization for boys than for girls. We recommend that policy-makers develop effective anti-bullying intervention and prevention programs for all types of LBC in China.