Racial Differences in Bullying Victimization in School and Anxiety: A Social Ecological Framework

Background: Findings on racial differences in bullying victimization in school to date are inconsistent.  Moreover, research on factors that protect youth who are likely to be bullied is scarce.  The purpose of the current study is to examine racial differences in protective factors that influence bullying victimization in school and anxiety with the social ecological framework.  Protective factors including family income, parental supervision, school support, and community safety are the primary focus of this study.

Methodology: This study examined nationally representative data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, which is a longitudinal study on children and primary caregivers in 20 cities in the US with populations greater than 200,000 from 1998 and 2016. The current study examined the wave 6 at youth age 15 with a total of 3444 (mean=15.59; sd=.89). Youth were ethnically diverse with Caucasians (18.1%, n=590), Black Americans (49.0%, n=1,601), and Latinos (24.9%, n=813), multi-racial (5.4%, n= 175), and Others (2.6%, n= 86).  Males and females were approximately split in half (48.7% vs. 51.3%).  Reliability levels for measures of bullying (α=.62) in school, anxiety (α=.76), parental supervision (α=.60), school connectedness (α=.73), and community safety (α=.65) were reasonably acceptable. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with multi-group tests were conducted to identify protective factors and bullying victimization and anxiety for four racial groups without Others.

Results: A significant racial difference in bullying victimization was found (χ²=15.86, df=4, p<.01). Non-Hispanic multi-racial youth experienced the highest rate of bullying victimization (31.5%), followed by Whites (29.4%), Latinos (23.5%), and Blacks (21.8%). SEM tests revealed that a hypothesized model fits well to data (CFI=.95, RMSEA=.015, Δχ²/Δdf=2.5). Multi-group SEM tests showed that bullying victimization in school significantly affects anxiety only for Blacks and Latinos. Racial differences in the effects of three protective factors on youths’ bullying experience and anxiety were found. Community safety was significant for anxiety for all groups while it was significant both for bullying victimization and anxiety among Blacks only. School connectedness was significant for bullying victimization and anxiety for all groups. Parental supervision was significant for anxiety for Blacks and Latinos. Family income affects school connectedness and community safety for Whites and Blacks, while it affects only school connectedness for Latinos and multi-racial adolescents.

Conclusion: Findings from this study indicate that there exist racial differences in bullying victimization in school among adolescents. Multi-racial youth are the most vulnerable to bullying victimization in school although their number is relatively small in this study. Youth connectedness to school was found to be critical in understanding both bullying victimization and anxiety in adolescents regardless of racial groups. Community and family factors play different roles across the racial groups. Therefore, developing racially responsive interventions in areas of community and family factors are required to protect adolescents from bullying victimization. In addition, since bullying victimization affects anxiety for Black and Latino adolescents, mental health services for those adolescents will be needed.