The relationship of self-esteem to bullying perpetration and peer victimization among schoolchildren and adolescents: A meta-analytic review

Bullying perpetration and peer victimization has long been considered an important social and clinical problem. Children and adolescents who are bullied are at increased risk for mental health problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and bullying behavior (i.e. perpetration and peer victimization) using meta-analytic procedures. Online databases up to June 2014 were searched, and bibliographies of retrieved studies were examined, for studies that examined the association between self-esteem and bullying perpetration/peer victimization in children and adolescents. From an original pool of 936 studies, 121 non duplicated studies were identified that met criteria for inclusion. Possible moderators (e.g. age, source of bullying assessment, year of publication, etc.) were also examined. In the analyses, using a random-effects model, it was found that peer victimization is negatively associated with self-esteem, with a mean effect size of r = − 0.27. A negative but trivial association was also found (r = − 0.07) between bullying behavior and self-esteem. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias. The implications of the meta-analytic findings for future research on bullying perpetration and peer victimization prevention are discussed.