Testing the Association Between General Bullying, Ethnic-Based Bullying, Suicidal Ideation and Substance Use in Hispanic Youth

Background. Hispanic youth experience disproportionate risks of substance use, depression and suicidal ideation compared to their non-Hispanic peers. Further, each of these is empirically related to bullying. However, there is little attention on the relation between ethnic-based bullying and behavioral health outcomes in this population. Thus, the current study tested: (a) the direct relation of ethnic-based based bullying, general bullying, and generational status to suicidal ideation and alcohol, marijuana, and illicit drug use, and (b) the indirect path of ethnic-based bulling through clinical depression to these outcomes in Hispanic youth.

Methods. A random sample of 6^th, 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th grades in all public middle and high schools was collected from one large North Carolina county (N=3,012). The current study included data collected only from Hispanic students (n=594). The sample was majority female (55.4%). Thirty-three percent of Hispanic youth were immigrants and 93.3% of the Hispanic sample had at least one immigrant parent. Measures of behavioral health included suicidal ideation (e.g. think about suicide, think about a plan), clinical depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), and lifetime alcohol, marijuana, and illicit drug use (e.g. cocaine, methamphetamines, etc.). The independent variables were two separate constructs of victimization: ethnic-based bullying (e.g. bullied because of ethnicity, language) and general bullying (e.g. made fun of me, threatened). Covariates included age, gender, and generational status. A path analysis using an IRT-based model to estimate the direct and indirect effects of categorical and ordinal variables was tested in MPLUS.

Results. The statistics indicated a good model fit (X² (6) = 2.74, p = .84; RMSEA = .00; CFI/TLI = 1.00/1.01). General bullying is associated with a greater likelihood of depression (p <.001); ethnic-based bulling predicted a higher likelihood of clinical depression over and above general bullying (p <.001). U.S.-born children experienced greater clinical depression than did foreign-born students (p=.008). Depression is associated with greater suicidal ideation (p <.001). In addition, general bullying was associated with suicidal ideation (p=.011) over and above depression; ethnic-based bulling was not. In terms of the mediation model, the indirect effects of ethnic-based bullying through depression was significant for all the outcomes except marijuana, as was the indirect effects of general bullying and generational status. The only significant direct effect of bullying after controlling for depression was for general bullying on suicide and the direct effect was greater than the indirect effects. For alcohol and illicit drug use, most of the effects of general and ethnic-based bullying and child nativity were through its effect on depression.

Conclusions. Hispanic youth in immigrant families may be at an elevated risk of bullying related to their race, ethnicity and language, especially in states where the Hispanic immigrant population is emerging and growing at exponential rates. Ensuring the healthy development of youth needs to include prevention strategies for bullying and ethnic-based bullying in particular in order to prevent depression, which ultimately contributes to suicidal ideation and substance use. Studies like this are needed to influence the development of community-based efforts for this at-risk youth group.