Heterogeneity in school adjustment among adolescent victims of school bullying and its association with mental health

Junying Wang, Ning Jia^*
Department of Psychology, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
* Corresponding Author: Ning Jia. Email: email

Journal of Psychology in Africa https://doi.org/10.32604/jpa.2026.075460

Received 01 November 2025; Accepted 15 June 2026; Published online 13 August 2026

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Abstract

This study investigated latent profiles of school adjustment among adolescent victims of school bullying and examined differences in mental health levels and network structures across these profiles. Data were drawn from the “Database of Youth Health”, including 829 victims of school bullying (461 boys; 368 girls). Latent profile analysis yielded heterogeneity in school adjustment, which could be divided into the well-adapted group (characterized by strong prosocial competence, low antisocial behavior) and the poorly-adapted group (marked by insufficient prosocial resources, prominent antisocial behaviors). The well-adapted group had significantly better mental health status than the poorly-adapted group as indicated by consistently lower scores across all ten psychopathological symptom dimensions of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). Network analysis revealed that anxiety was a central node in both groups, as it was the node with the highest expected influence value and served as the core hub connecting school adjustment and mental health indicators in both networks. However, the well-adapted group also featured self-management skills and depression as core nodes, whereas the poorly-adapted group exhibited obsessive-compulsive symptoms and eating/sleeping problems as central nodes. These findings underscore the relevance of ecological systems theory and person-centered latent profile and network analytical approaches, and highlight the need for targeted intervention strategies based on school adjustment profiles to improve the mental health of adolescent victims of school bullying.