Bullying and Victimization in Chinese Affordable Kindergartens: A Latent Profile Analysis

Research on bullying and victimization has largely focused on univariate analyses on older children. Little is known regarding the bullying and victimization experience of young children with a person-centered approach, especially in Chinese affordable kindergarten settings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and underlying profiles of bullying and victimization experiences. The study was based on a sample of 92,528 children aging from 2 to 6 years old enrolled in 582 Chinese affordable kindergartens. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify latent profiles of participants based on their bullying-victimization characteristics. The results suggested that the most common bullying form was physical bullying, followed by verbal bullying, and social bullying. A three-class model was identified from the involved participants: not involved class, physical bully-victim class, and verbal-physical victim class. Male children were more likely to be in the “physical bully-victim” and “verbal-physical victim” class than female children. Children with one or more siblings were more likely than children with no sibling to be in the “physical bully-victim” and “verbal-physical victim” class. Our study suggests that bullying may be prevalent in affordable kindergarten and it is urgent to create a policy framework to identify, intervene and prevent bullying behaviors.