Background

Children who come from families on welfare or government assistance might be at risk for bullying involvement. As research has shown, children living in poverty and experiencing family economic hardship are significantly likely to be involved in bullying in school.

Objective

This study investigates whether welfare assistance is associated with children’s bullying victimization and perpetration, controlling for the covariates including mother (educational level, marital status, employment status, perceived parenting) and child (sex, age, race/ethnicity) characteristics. The study also explores whether various kinds of welfare assistance programs, such as Medicaid, Cash Assistance, SNAP, free/reduced breakfasts or lunches at school and the WIC program are independently associated with children’s bullying victimization and perpetration, controlling for the covariates.

Method

Participants were 15,010 caregivers of children, ages 6–11 years, who completed the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH).

Results

Results suggest that children receiving welfare assistance were more likely to be victims and perpetrators of bullying than children not on assistance. All of the welfare assistance variables were associated with increased odds of bullying perpetration, and three out of five welfare assistance programs—Medicaid, SNAP, and free/reduced breakfasts or lunches at school were statistically significantly associated with increased odds of bullying victimization.

Conclusion

Children in families receiving welfare assistance appear to be at an increased risk of being both victims and perpetrators of bullying, which suggests a need for bullying programming for this population.

中文翻译：

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福利接收者的孩子遭受欺凌和同伴受害的风险增加了吗？

背景

来自家庭的儿童在福利或政府援助下可能会受到欺凌的威胁。研究表明，生活在贫困中并遭受家庭经济困难的儿童极有可能参与学校欺凌行为。

目的

这项研究调查了福利援助是否与儿童的欺凌行为和受害行为有关，控制了包括母亲（教育水平，婚姻状况，就业状况，育儿状况）和孩子（性别，年龄，种族/民族）特征在内的协变量。该研究还探讨了各种福利援助计划，例如医疗补助，现金援助，SNAP，免费/减少的学校早餐或午餐，以及WIC计划是否独立于儿童的欺凌行为和侵害行为，从而控制了协变量。

方法

参加者为15010名6-11岁的儿童保姆，他们完成了全国儿童健康调查（NSCH）。

结果

结果表明，接受福利援助的儿童比没有援助的儿童更有可能成为欺凌的受害者和肇事者。所有的福利援助变量都与欺负行为的发生几率增加相关，而五分之三的福利援助计划（Medicaid，SNAP以及学校免费/减少早餐或午餐）与欺凌受害的几率显着相关。

结论

接受福利援助的家庭中的儿童似乎更容易成为欺凌的受害者和作恶者，这表明有必要针对这一人口实施欺凌方案。