Abstract
Objectives
The relationship between bully victimization and depression has been examined extensively with prior research showing long-term cascade of problems stemming from both exposure to victimization and depressive symptomology. However, prior research has failed to consider how protective factors may mitigate these long-term problems. Three theoretical models were tested: the interpersonal risk model, symptom driven model, and transactional model.
Methods
The present study employs a novel statistical technique to explore longitudinal reciprocal associations among bullying, depression, and school belonging in a sample of 2177 middle school students (ages 11 to 15) in a Midwestern state. We used a model building process to explore the overall association between bully victimization, depression, and school belonging as well as a multi-group model in which models were estimated for boys and girls, separately.
Results
In our overall model, results indicated support for both symptom driven and interpersonal risk models. However, we did not find any significant buffering effect of school belonging. In our multi-group model, we found support for a buffering effect of school belonging for girls, but not boys. School belonging buffered long term problems associated with experiences of bully victimization via reductions in depression.
Conclusions
Our findings point to the broader concept of school structure being differentially supportive and protective for various demographic groups and the need to consider the entire social ecology of a school when planning and implementing prevention interventions.
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Author Contributions
JPD: designed and executed the study, performed data analysis, interpreted the results, and wrote the paper; GJM: assisted in interpretation of results, collaborated in writing of the results section; KMI: collaborated in the design and writing of the manuscript; DLE: assisted in design of the study, collaborated in writing and editing of the manuscript; AV: collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript; and AJE: collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript.
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Data in this manuscript were drawn from a grant from the CDC (1U01/CE001677) to Dorothy Espelage (PI).
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Davis, J.P., Merrin, G.J., Ingram, K.M. et al. Examining Pathways between Bully Victimization, Depression, & School Belonging Among Early Adolescents. J Child Fam Stud 28, 2365–2378 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01340-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01340-9