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Cross-national Differences in Bullying Dynamics: Comparing Latinx Youths’ Experiences in Mexico and the USA

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Abstract

Although bullying is increasingly researched in the USA, there remains a limited study of bullying among Mexican youth. To address this gap, the present study compared bullying dynamics across the two countries, with a specific focus on Latinx youth in the US and Mexican youth. Data come from a large school-based survey of 3030 US self-identified as Latinx/Hispanic and 2211 Mexican adolescents. The survey utilized the US-derived term “bullying” for the definition-based questions with the definitions and behaviors translated into the local Mexican Spanish dialect. Logistic regression results indicated that the prevalence of youth who bully is similar; however, more Mexican youth reported being a victim while more US Latinx youth reported witnessing bullying. US Latinx youths’ responses to bullying reflect behaviors emphasized in bullying prevention programs whereas Mexican youth reported more retaliatory responses. This study informs our understanding of similarities and differences in bullying dynamics across contexts, which is critical to informing intervention development and adaptation to target locally relevant bullying behaviors.

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Funding

This work was funded in part by grants from the US Department of Education, the Institute of Education Sciences partnership grant, and the National Institute of Justice awarded to the last author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Tracy Evian Waasdorp

  2. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2716 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, USA

    Tracy Evian Waasdorp

  3. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Amanda J. Nguyen & Catherine P. Bradshaw

  4. University of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico

    Mercedes Gabriela Orozco Solis

Authors
  1. Tracy Evian Waasdorp
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  2. Amanda J. Nguyen
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  3. Mercedes Gabriela Orozco Solis
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  4. Catherine P. Bradshaw
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Correspondence to Tracy Evian Waasdorp.

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The research involved analysis of secondary data, the Institutional Review Board at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Virginia approved this study, and we complied with APA ethical guidelines in the treatment of the sample and the writing of the paper.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Waasdorp, T.E., Nguyen, A.J., Orozco Solis, M.G. et al. Cross-national Differences in Bullying Dynamics: Comparing Latinx Youths’ Experiences in Mexico and the USA. Int Journal of Bullying Prevention 1, 161–169 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-019-00013-x

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