Racial Differences in the Applicability of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model for Adolescent Bullying Involvement

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Social scientists have devoted much theoretical and empirical attention to studying the correlates of bullying perpetration and victimization. Much less attention has been devoted to studying race differences in the correlates of bullying behaviors despite the importance of these when designing effective and focused prevention and intervention programs.

Methods: Utilizing data from the 2009 to 2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study in the United States, this study applies Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to bullying in order to examine how various interrelated systems are associated with bullying perpetration, victimization, and their concordance in a nationally representative sample of adolescents.

Results: Findings shown important similarities, as well as some differences, across race in how key parental and peer relationships relate to aspects of involvement in bullying. Directions for future research are noted.

Notes

¹ None of the correlations exceeded r = 0.51, which limits potential problems associated with collinearity in the model space.

² For the coefficient comparison tests across race, the corresponding Z statistics (Z-test) were calculated revealing mother’s parental monitoring (Z = 1.99, p < .05) and delinquent friend influences × parent–child communication (Z = 3.37, p < .001) were significant. This indicates that the effects of mother’s parental monitoring and delinquent friend influences × parent–child communication were significantly different between Whites and Blacks. Apart from the significant variables, the results of the corresponding Z-test indicate few differences between the two samples with respect to how the covariates relate to victimization.

³ Regarding the coefficient comparison tests on perpetration for Whites and Blacks, parental treatment (z = 2.12, p < .05), number of friends (z = 2.52, p < .05), delinquent friend influences × parent–child communication (z = 4.00, p < .001), and delinquent friend influences × elder brother/sister communication (z = 2.17, p < .05) were found to be significant, indicating that the coefficient estimates for these variables are significantly different from one another across race.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jun Sung Hong

Jun Sung Hong is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University. He is currently the Co-Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Youth Inequality and Justice (in Virginia Tech). For the past several years, Hong has primarily conducted research on factors associated with bias-based bullying and peer victimization of racial/ethnic minority, immigrant, LGBTQ, juvenile justice involved and economically disenfranchised adolescents and young adults in the U.S. and in South Korea. He has also collaborated with scholars in South Korea, Taiwan, Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, Spain, and Brazil on research projects.

Simon C. Hunter

Simon C. Hunter is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences and Health at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK). He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Strathclyde in 2004 and has published primarily on bullying, screen-use, and psycho-social wellbeing among youth.

Jinwon Kim

Jinwon Kim is a Senior Researcher in Institute for Social Welfare Studies at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. His research interests include social adaptation and problems of adolescents and immigrant youth, individual well-being, changing family structure, positive effects of family activities, and quantitative research methods. Recently, Kim has primarily conducted research on factors associated with bullying and peer victimization of adolescents, and the developmental trajectories of adolescent well-being during a divorce process. He has also participated in various R&D projects on social welfare and has a several years of career as a social worker.

Alex R. Piquero

Alex R. Piquero is Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology and Associate Dean of Graduate Programs in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas and Professor of Criminology at Monash University in Melbourne Australia. He is also editor of Justice Evaluation Journal. His research interests include criminal careers, criminological theory, crime policy, evidence-based crime prevention, and quantitative research methods. He is consistently ranked among the most published and most cited criminologists in the world. He has received several research, teaching, and service awards and is Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. In 2014, he received The University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and in 2018 he was inducted into The University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In 2019, he received the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Bruce Smith, Sr. Award for outstanding contributions to criminal justice.

Chelsey Narvey

Chelsey Narvey is a third year Ph.D. student in Criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research interests include criminological theory, corrections, and developmental/life-course criminology, and she does work at the intersection of corrections and life-course theory. She has published on telemedicine and the way it can be used in correctional settings. Some of her work can be found in the Journal of Correctional Healthcare, as well as in Aggression & Violent Behavior. In 2019, she won the Distinguished Instruction by a Teaching Assistant Award in her school.