title: Associations between depression risk, bullying and current smoking among Chinese adolescents: Modulated by gender.
abstract: This school-based study aimed to investigate the prevalence of being at risk for depression, bullying behavior, and current smoking among Chinese adolescents in order to explore gender differences in the vulnerability of adolescents with these behaviors to develop a smoking habit. A total of 35,893 high school students sampled from high schools in eighteen cities in China participated in the study from 2011 to 2012. Overall, the prevalence of current smoking was estimated at 6.4%. In total, 1.7% (618) of the participants admitted to bullying others, 5.8% (2071) reported being bullied, 3.5% (1269) were involved in both bullying others and being bullied, and 5.6% (2017) were at high risk for depression. Logistic regression analysis indicated that among girls, with high depression risk, bullying others, being bullied, and both bullying others and being bullied were independently and positively associated with current smoking habits, while the final results among boys showed that bullying others and both bullying others and being bullied were independently associated with an increased risk of current smoking. School-based prevention programs are highly recommended, and we should focus on high-risk students, particularly girls with high risk of depression or involved in school bullying and boys who are involved in school bullying.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, People's Republic of China; Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Centre, School of Public Health, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology Research Unit, Clinical trails Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 58, Zhongshan 2nd Road, Yuexiu, Guangzhou 510000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lingyao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Center for ADR Monitoring of Guangdong, Guangzhou 510080, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jinhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: luciyong@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ciyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Clinical Research Centre, School of Public Health, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium.
authors.forename: Wei-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D058445:Bullying / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescent; Bullying; Current smoking; Depression