Bullying behavior is a common social problem worldwide and a hot issue that exists in primary and secondary school campuses in various countries. Involvement in school bullying causes serious harm to the physical and mental health of primary and secondary school students, and these harms may also trigger psychological disorders and antisocial behaviors in individuals during adolescence and even adulthood. Elementary school is the budding period of school bullying behavior, and understanding the developmental patterns and influencing factors of bullying behavior in elementary school children can prevent and reduce the problem of school bullying in their adolescence. Against this background, a study published in Psychological Development and Education, by analyzing 1,037 third-grade children in three elementary school in Anhui Province, hoped to examine the longitudinal effects of parental physical and psychological abuse on children's bullying behaviors and their potential differences in Chinese culture.

The study showed that:

I. Both parental physical abuse and psychological abuse increase children's three types of bullying behaviors, including physical bullying, verbal bullying, and relational bullying, and the negative effect of psychological abuse is delayed and develops more significantly over time. Meanwhile, there is no significant gender difference in parental physical abuse and psychological abuse affecting children's bullying behaviors, which may reflect the prevalence of parental physical abuse and psychological abuse harming children of different genders in China.

Second, physical bullying, verbal bullying, and relational bullying among primary school children all showed a decreasing trend with the development of time. As children grow older, they become more aware of the immorality and harmfulness of bullying behaviors and thus reduce bullying behaviors. Moral education and bullying education may also play an important role in the reduction of bullying behaviors among children. Unlike previous studies, which have shown that physical bullying gradually decreases or even disappears as individuals grow older, and that relational bullying shows a tendency to grow in children in early adolescence, this study found that both physical and relational bullying showed a decreasing trend.

Third, boys were significantly higher than girls in the initial level of the three bullying behaviors, and there was no gender difference in the developmental rate of the three bullying behaviors. Higher levels of parental physical abuse and psychological abuse had a hindering effect on the reduction of the three bullying behaviors among elementary school students at the same moment. The study points out that parents should take the initiative to learn and understand scientific parenting methods and improve the way of getting along with their children so that they can grow up healthily in a positive parenting environment.