The Relationship Between Bullying Behavior and Substance Use Among Mexican American Adolescents

Purpose: Bullying is a widespread form of violence that adversely affects the health and well-being of children and adolescents. In the U.S., approximately 30% of students in grades 6 through 12 report engaging in bullying or being bullied by others (Nansel, et al., 2001).

Youth involved in bullying are typically categorized as bullies, victims, and bully-victims. Bullies are characterized by externalizing problems while victims are more likely to manifest internalizing problems. Bully-victims – youth who are both perpetrators and victims of bullying – are often at greatest risk of conduct, academic, and peer relationship problems compared to youth considered victims or bullies alone (Smokowski & Kopasz, 2005).

Bullying is associated with poorer adjustment as well as greater involvement in risky behaviors (Tharp-Taylor, et al., 2009). Although existing research supports a link between bullying and substance use, little is known about adolescent bullying behavior and its relationship to substance use in ethnic minority populations.

 

In a sample of Mexican American adolescents, the aims of the current study are to: (a) explore the prevalence of bullying behavior by status as bully, victim, and bully-victim, and (b) examine the relationship between bullying behavior status and recent use of alcohol, cigarettes, and inhalants.

 

Methods: Data for this study come from the final wave of a 5-year randomized controlled trial which tested the efficaciousness of a substance use prevention intervention among 8th grade students in the Southwest region of the U.S. The analytic sample included adolescents self-identifying as Mexican American or of Mexican heritage (n=1,022).

Measures:Measures of past 30-day substance use assessed whether participants had more than a sip of alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and sniffed inhalants to get high (Hecht et al., 2003). Responses were dichotomized to assess any recent use. Ten items assessed participants’ self-reported frequency of physical and verbal bullying behavior in the past academic year (Ladd & Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2002). Based on prior literature (Weiss et al., 2011), we categorized participants into groups based on activity as non-involved, bully only, victim only, or bully-victim.

Analysis: Descriptive statistics assessed the prevalence of adolescents classified as noninvolved, bullies, victims, and bully-victims as well as the proportion of adolescents who engaged in 30-day substance use. Logistic regression analyses examined the association between bullying status and substance use, with three separate models for alcohol, cigarette, and inhalant use, respectively.

 

Results: Bullies showed elevated risk of alcohol use compared to noninvolved youth (OR=6.82; 95% CI=[2.86, 16.26]) as did bully-victims (OR=4.0; 95% CI=[2.42, 6.62]). Bullies had increased odds of recent cigarette use compared to noninvolved youth (OR=6.01; 95% CI=[1.38, 26.12]) as did bully-victims (OR=3.58; 95% CI=[1.21, 10.54]). Finally, bully-victims were the only group that was significantly associated with recent inhalant use (OR=9.19; 95% CI=[2.16, 39.10]).

 

Implications: Mexican American adolescents who engage in bullying behavior as bullies or bully-victims are at significant risk of engaging in substance use. Prevention and early intervention programs aimed to reduce bullying can also work to decrease other risky behaviors, such as substance use, and should attend to the growing ethnic diversity among youth.