ABSTRACT

Bullying experiences in adolescence has become a nationwide problem as 28% of the children report being bullied over the past school year. Adolescents who report being bullied have been found to have higher rates of anxiety and depression. Although several studies have examined family support and school connectedness as protective factors that buffer the link between being bullied and mental health, little is known about racial/ethnic differences in bullying victimization. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory proposes that a child’s environment (e.g., family cohesion, school connectedness) is a potential protective factor between bullying experiences and mental health. Adolescent data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were used to analyze a structural model, postulating frequency of being bullied on the adolescents reports of perceived health, directly and as mediated by anxiety symptoms, was assessed among adolescents who were Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, White, Multiracial, and other races not specified in the assessment. Additionally, we examined whether reports of family cohesion and/or school connectedness moderate the link between frequency of being bullied and anxiety. Modest, yet significant results indicated that there were group differences for the model, and school connectedness was linked with lower rates of anxiety symptoms and better reports of perceived health for most groups. These findings provided insight into the importance of considering contextual factors such as race when examining bullying victimization as well as provides insight for school and helping professionals such as family therapists striving to stymie the effects of being bullied among adolescents.

摘要

青春期的欺凌经历已成为全国性的问题，因为有28％的儿童报告在过去的学年中遭到欺凌。发现被欺负的青少年焦虑和抑郁的发生率更高。尽管有几项研究将家庭支持和学校联系作为保护因素，以缓冲被欺负与心理健康之间的联系，但对于欺凌受害者的种族/种族差异知之甚少。Bronfenbrenner的生态系统理论提出，孩子的环境（例如家庭凝聚力，学校联系感）是欺凌经历和心理健康之间的潜在保护因素。来自脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究的青少年数据用于分析结构模型，在黑人/非裔美国人，西班牙裔/拉丁美洲人，白人，多种族和未在评估中指定的其他种族的青少年中，评估了直接或由焦虑症状介导的青少年感知到的健康报告中被欺负的频率。此外，我们检查了家庭凝聚力和/或学校联系的报告是否减轻了被欺凌频率和焦虑之间的联系。适度但重要的结果表明该模型存在群体差异，并且学校联系性与大多数群体的焦虑症状发生率较低和更好的感知健康报告相关。