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Bullying victimization remains to be a public health concern in the United States, especially among sexual and ethnic minority youth. However, few studies have examined how school outcomes might be associated with bullying victimization among heterosexual and sexual minority African American youth and the factors that may attenuate that relationship. To address this gap, this study surveyed 462 heterosexual and 102 sexual minority African American youth residing in Chicago's Southside neighborhoods, who participated in the Resiliency Project. Study variables included bullying victimization, school outcomes (i.e., school connectedness, and academic grades), and future orientation. Bullying victimization was associated with a significant increase in feeling disconnected from school among both heterosexual and sexual minority adolescents; however, there was no significant association observed between bullying victimization and receiving low grades among either group. Future orientation did not moderate the association between bullying victimization and school outcomes among heterosexual adolescents; however, positive future orientation did attenuate the association between bullying victimization and feeling disconnected from school among sexual minority adolescents. Prevention programs that focus on promoting school connectedness need to consider the role of future orientation for sexual minority youth.

The present study examines whether easy talking with parents would buffer the association between bullying victimization and declining academic performance among a nationally representative sample of foreign-born and U.S.-born adolescents. The study was drawn from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children 2009-2010 cohort study in the United States. Analyses include descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and moderated regression analysis for each group (i.e., foreign-born and U.S.-born). Results indicate a significant relationship between bullying victimization and declining academic performance for foreign-born and U.S.-born adolescents. Findings also suggest that easy talking with parents moderated the association between bullying victimization and declining academic performance but for foreign-born adolescents only. The study highlights the importance of family and parental communication to ensure immigrant adolescents’ health, well-being, and academic progress. Practice and policy implications and future research directions are discussed.

Guided by the social-cognitive theory and self-determination theory, this study examined whether moral disengagement is indirectly associated with pro-bullying, passive bystanding, and defending, mediated by autonomous motivation, introjected motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation to defend victims of bullying among early adolescents. Participants were 901 upper elementary students from 43 school classes at 15 public schools in Sweden who completed a questionnaire in their classrooms. The results showed that students who were less inclined to morally disengage in peer bullying tended to be more autonomously motivated to take the victim's side, which in turn was associated with greater defending and fewer pro-bullying behaviors. Introjected motivation to defend negatively mediated the association between moral disengagement and defending, and positively mediated moral disengagement's associations with passive bystanding and pro-bullying behavior. Extrinsic motivation to defend mediated moral disengagement's associations with passive bystanding and pro-bullying behavior. Finally, students who were more prone to morally disengage in peer bullying tended to be more amotivated to take the victim's side, which in turn was associated with greater pro-bullying behavior and less defending.

Socioeconomic inequality is a persistent societal problem affecting various aspects of adolescent development. Existing studies have revealed that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with a higher prevalence of internalizing symptoms. However, little is known about the underlying factors that may mediate this relationship. The current study conducted path analyses to examine the role of academic performance and cyberbullying victimization as mediators of the association between family SES and internalizing symptoms (depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation). The sample consisted of 7333 middle and high school students (age 12 to 19 years) (50.8% female) participating in the Korean Children and Youth Rights Study. Findings indicated that SES was directly and negatively associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. There were indirect associations between SES and internalizing symptoms through academic performance and cyberbullying victimization. The findings suggest low family SES is significantly related to adolescents' internalizing symptoms, and academic performance and cyberbullying victimization are key mediators of the negative association between family SES and internalizing symptoms. Further longitudinal studies exploring the roles of family SES, academic performance, and cyberbullying victimization are suggested.

This study investigates multiple-level antecedents of cyberbullying victimization among early adolescents. Data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 2009 to 2010 cohort study in the United States were used. The sample included White, Black, Latino, and Asian adolescents, ages 10-14 (N = 8481). Bivariate analysis, logistic regression, and subgroup analysis were conducted. Among White adolescents, female sex, older age, and bullying victimization were positively associated with cyberbullying victimization, whereas parental awareness was negatively associated. Among Black adolescents, bullying victimization was positively associated with cyberbullying victimization, but parental employment was negatively associated. Among Latino adolescents, older age was positively related to cyberbullying victimization, whereas "other" family structures were negatively related. Among Asian adolescents, "other" family structure and bullying victimization were positively related to cyberbullying victimization, whereas parental awareness, parental employment, and "quite well off" family socioeconomic status were negatively related. Parental awareness moderated the association between parental employment and cyberbullying victimization.

The current study examines the association between risk behaviors and victimization and race-based victimization amongst U.S.-born and foreign-born Asian, Black, and Latinx adolescents. Data were derived from the U.S. subset of the 2009-2010 Health Behavior in School-aged Children study. Samples include 662 Asian, 2413 Black, and 3188 Latinx adolescents (M = 12.9, SD = 1.75, 48.6% female) in grades 5-10. Univariate analyses, t-test analyses, and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Aggressive behavior was associated with victimization for U.S.-born and foreign-born Asian, Black, and Latinx adolescents. Race-based aggressive behavior was correlated for U.S.-born and foreign-born Black and Latinx adolescents. Smoking was positively associated with victimization amongst foreign-born Asian adolescents. Alcohol use was correlated with victimization and race-based victimization amongst foreign-born Latinx adolescents. Marijuana use was related to victimization amongst U.S.-born Black adolescents. Physical fighting was shown to be positively correlated with race-based victimization for U.S.-born Latinx adolescents. Carrying a weapon was associated with victimization and race-based victimization for U.S.-born and foreign-born Latinx adolescents. It was also associated with victimization amongst U.S.-born Asian adolescents. Befriending deviant peers was negatively associated with U.S.-born and foreign-born Black adolescents and U.S.-born Latinx adolescents, but positively associated with U.S.-born Asian adolescents.

Background: This study examined pathways from peer victimization to alcohol use and the role of parental support in mediating potential peer effects among biracial youth. Given a significant dearth of research on biracial youth, this study addresses this significant gap in the extant literature. Methods: Secondary data analyses were conducted using the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study in the United States. This study enrolled 492 self-identified biracial school-aged youth using a nationally representative sampling of public and private schools. Results: Structural equation modeling was computed to test the mediational effects of low number of close friends, affiliation with delinquent friends, and parental support on alcohol use. Major findings indicated that affiliation with delinquent friends was correlated with higher alcohol use, higher levels of parental support were correlated with lower peer victimization, and higher levels of parental support were negatively correlated with affiliation with delinquent peers and alcohol use. Conclusions: Parental and peer effects remain salient for biracial youth who are navigating adolescence and experiencing peer victimization. School-based interventions that include parents and friends of biracial youth are likely to be effective in reducing peer victimization and its negative sequelae.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth experience higher rates of adverse mental health outcomes, most notably suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). The current study examines risk and protective factors for STBs and depression among 1,078 youth in high schools. We examine these outcomes through an intersectional lens, and we extend the use of the minority stress theory framework by focusing on resilience and protective factors and argue that bias against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth should be addressed at the systemic, rather than the individual, level. Our findings suggest that family support is a notable factor protective of depression and suicide-related behavior among LGBTQ youth. Additionally, peer support, help-seeking beliefs, access to medical and counseling services, engaging in healthy activities, spirituality, and having trusted adults are protective factors for some groups. The nuanced findings in this study offer suggestions for school psychologists and professionals to promote healthy and safe school environments.

Past research has revealed a link between family economic hardship and children's bullying involvement, yet research has not examined the kinds of factors that may mediate this relationship. Our study used data from the National Survey of Children's Health and consisted of a sample of 15,797 children from 12 to 17 years of age who lived with their mothers. We found that family economic hardship was directly related to a child's bullying behavior. Indirect associations were also found between child's bullying and family economic hardship, violence in the home, and mother's parental frustration. Implications for research are discussed.

Parent-child, teacher-student, and peer relationships are important for adolescents, and can be related to bullying victimization. However, limited research explores whether, how much, and how these three interpersonal relationships are related to bullying victimization based on different grade levels (junior high and high school) and victimization status (victims and bully victims) in a Chinese cultural context. The present research addressed the gap. Participants were 945 Chinese students in junior high and high school (M[subscript age] = 14.11, SD = 1.48). The results showed that the three interpersonal relationships were significantly and negatively associated with bullying victimization, except parent-child relationships in bully victims. However, the predictive power of the three interpersonal relationships on bullying victimization varied. Compared to high school students, parent-child and teacher-student relationships in junior high school students had greater predictive power for bullying victimization. Compared to pure victims, teacher-student relationships in bully victims had greater predictive power for bullying victimization. Compared to bully victims, parent-child relationships of pure victims had greater predictive power for bullying victimization. Furthermore, the three interpersonal relationships had different roles in bullying victimization among groups. For junior high school students, high school students, and pure victims, parent-child relationships were related to bullying victimization directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of teacher-student and classmate relationships. For bully victims, teacher-student relationships were related to bullying victimization indirectly through the mediating role of relationships with classmates. Thus, anti-bullying policies and interventions need to be more individually tailored. Moreover, parent-child relationships are an important protective factor against bullying among Chinese adolescents.

Guided by the Risk and Resilience Model, the present study aims to generate hypotheses by investigating a wide range of variables that might buffer the association between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms from a convenience sample of African American adolescents in four neighborhoods in Chicago's Southside. Measures for the study included internalizing symptoms, peer victimization, four protective factors (parental closeness, teacher's care, religiosity, and positive future orientation) and covariates (age, sex, and government assistance). Controlling for the covariates, a series of multivariate regression analyses were conducted to explore the direct effects of peer victimization and internalizing symptoms and the interaction between peer victimization and the four protective factors. The study found that peer victimization was directly associated with internalizing symptoms. In terms of the interactions, the study found that parental closeness moderated the association between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms. The findings show that parental closeness is an important protective factor that needs to be considered in the research hypotheses. The findings specifically demonstrated the importance of developing hypotheses to test whether parental closeness protects adolescents from internalizing symptoms linked to peer victimization.

Teen dating violence (TDV) and school violence (SV) are two major social problems in adolescence. Until recently, the antecedents of both TDV and SV have been analyzed largely independently of each other. This study analyses and compares the determinants of both TDV and SV, with a focus on physical violence. Based on a comprehensive survey of ninth-grade adolescents at the average age of 15 years (N = 3,800) conducted in the German federal state of Lower Saxony, the findings showed that there is a significant but low correlation between both physical TDV and SV (r = 0.21). Concerning the determinants, we found that males carry out physical SV significantly more often, but physical TDV significantly less often than female respondents. Acquaintance with violent friends shows a stronger correlation with SV but not with TDV. Low self-control and violent media consumption are determinants of both TDV and SV. Empathy as a protective factor and parental violence as another risk factor were found to be only weak and sometimes not significantly correlated with both TDV and SV.