Gender inequality and adolescent bullying victimization among 69 countries and its effect modification by corporal punishment prohibiting laws

BACKGROUND: Bullying victimization among adolescents is a major public health concern, and its prevalence varies considerably across countries. While country-level economic factors are often cited to explain this variation, the roles of gender inequality and national legal frameworks remain underexplored. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between country-level gender inequality and bullying victimization among adolescents across 69 middle- and high-income countries and whether national laws prohibiting corporal punishment modify this association. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Data were obtained from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of 15-year-old students. METHODS: The primary outcome was the victimization score, derived from six self-reported experiences of bullying victimization. Multilevel regression analysis was used to explore the association between the Gender Inequality Index (GII) and the outcome. We also analyzed effect modification by national laws prohibiting corporal punishment (no/partial; fully banned for ≤10 years; fully banned for >10 years). RESULTS: The study included 433,836 students (50.6% female). Higher GII was associated with increased victimization (b = 0.52; 95% CI, 0.32-0.73 per one-standard deviation increase), explaining 35.6% of the country-level variance. This association was stronger for boys and was modified by corporal punishment laws. Compared to countries with no or partial prohibition, countries with full prohibition enacted for ≤10 years exhibited an attenuated association. This attenuating effect was not observed in countries with a full prohibition for >10 years. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing societal gender inequality and promoting the full prohibition of corporal punishment may be relevant strategies for mitigating adolescent bullying victimization, particularly for boys.