Underage alcohol use and bullying are major adolescent health concerns in the Philippines. We estimated the prevalence of current alcohol use and its association with bullying victimization. We analyzed data from the 2019 Philippine Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS). Current alcohol use was ≥1 drinking day in the past 30 days. Bullying exposures included school-based, outside-school, and cyberbullying in the past 12 months. Weighted chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression were used to identify predictors. The current alcohol use prevalence was 20.4%. Alcohol use was more likely among males (aOR = 1.77; 95% CI: 1.58–1.98). Adolescents < 15 years had lower odds than those ≥15 years (aOR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.49–0.61). Bullying victimization was independently associated with drinking, strongest for cyberbullying (aOR = 2.36; 95% CI: 2.08–2.68), with additional associations for school-based (aOR = 1.39) and outside-school bullying (aOR = 1.51). Underage drinking is closely linked to bullying, particularly cyberbullying, supporting integrated school-based prevention combining psychosocial support, digital literacy, and gender-responsive strategies.
Opina et al. (Tue,) studied this question.