Health effects of repeated victimization among school-aged adolescents in six major cities in China

Background: Child victimization is a public health concern in China. Existing studies documented associations between victimization and negative health effects, while cumulative health effects of repeated victimization have attracted relatively little attention from scholars. Objective: To examine the health effects of various types of repeated victimization by using a large representative sample of school children in six major cities in China. Participants and Setting: This study used data from a large representative sample of 18,452 Chinese adolescents aged 15-17 from six cities, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Xi'an, Wuhan, and Hong Kong. Methods: We carried out a two-stage data analysis in this study, including descriptive statistics to describe the prevalence of repeated victimization, and multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) to examine the health consequences of repeated victimization. Results: 27.54% of respondents experienced one-time victimization, and 44.26% suffered repeated victimizations, and those adolescents with repeated victimization reported significantly higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem and overall health when compared to those with one-time victimization and those without victimization experience. Conclusions: Experiences of repeated victimization can have much stronger associations with negative health outcomes when compared to experiences of one-time victimization. Promoting awareness of both the severity and repetition of victimization and designing integrative screening tool could be meaningful strategies to address the issue of child victimization in China.