Abstract
Research on the role of race and urbanicity in bullying involvement has been limited. The present study examined bullying involvement subgroups that relate to race, urbanicity, and the perceived reason for the bullying. Self-report data were collected from 10,254 middle school youth (49.8 % female; 62.4 % Caucasian, 19.0 % African American, and 5.6 % Hispanic) and latent class analyses were used to identify three subtypes of bullying involvement: low involvement (50 %), victim (31.3 %), and bully-victim (18.7 %). Irrespective of urbanicity (urban vs. non-urban), African American youth were more likely to be members of either the victim or bully-victim classes than the low involvement class. Further exploration of the community context suggested that urbanicity was associated with the increased likelihood of having been racially bullied. Urban bully-victims were also more likely to have been bullied about money than non-urban bully-victims. Findings underscore the importance of addressing both race and urbanicity for culturally sensitive prevention programming.
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Support for this project comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (K01CE001333-01; 1U49CE00728-011). AG made substantial contributions to data analyses, interpretation of results, drafting, critiquing, and revising the manuscript. TW made substantial contributions to interpretation of results, critiquing, and revising the manuscript. CB obtained funding, made substantial contributions to study design, interpretation of results, critiquing, and revising the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Goldweber, A., Waasdorp, T.E. & Bradshaw, C.P. Examining Associations Between Race, Urbanicity, and Patterns of Bullying Involvement. J Youth Adolescence 42, 206–219 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9843-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9843-y