Do Supportive Neighborhoods Assuage Bullying and Behavioral Problems to Promote School Engagement?

Background and Purpose:Bullying and behavioral problems are significant public health concerns that undermine healthy educational development and increase the risks of school dropout. Children who bully others and/or experience being bullied are more likely to disengage from school. Behavioral problems also contribute to lower school engagement. Supportive neighborhoods are protective against youth risk behavior, and evidence suggests effective supportive environments and social interactions, though mainly explored among home and school settings, increase youth school engagement. The current study examined whether perceptions of supportive neighborhoods moderated relationships between bullying (victim or bully) and behavioral problems and school engagement.

Methods:An analytic sample of 33,705 youth between 12-17 years old from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) 2020 and 2021 combined data were used to test a multiple-group path analysis that examined if the direct relationships between bullying, bullying victimization, and behavioral problems on school engagement were different for youth living in supportive neighborhoods and those who did not. The NSCH administers an annual, nationally representative, cross-sectional survey assessing well-being and social conditions of non-institutionalized children 0-17 years old; the NSCH combined 2020 and 2021 data to increase sample size and statistical power.

Measures:Being bullied (i.e., teased) and bullying others (i.e., hitting/kicking peers) were measured as frequency variables (higher scores representing greater occurrences during the past 12 months), and behavioral problems (e.g., conduct problems) were measured as the presence (1) or absence (0) of problems. School engagement was assessed by a summary score of two items (α=0.809), with higher values indicating greater frequencies of completing homework and caring about school. The binary moderating (grouping) variable assessed caregivers perceived whether youth lived in a supportive neighborhood (1) or not (0). All models controlled for youth’s race/ethnicity, gender, history of mental health problems, and poverty. Analysis was performed using Mplus v 8.8.

Results:The direct effect between being bullied, bullying others, and behavioral problems were negatively associated with school engagement (b=-0.103, p<0.001, b=-0.088, p<0.001, and b=-0.208, p<0.001, respectively). Statistically significant moderation for the full model with all paths constrained versus unconstrained was observed (Chi-Square Difference[x²_diff(df)]=20.042, df=3). Supportive neighborhoods significantly moderated the association between being bullied and bullying others and school engagement (x²_diff(1)=14.879, p<0.001, and x²_diff(1)=12.285, p<0.001, respectively), such that when youth lived in more supportive neighborhoods, the negative effects of bullying or being bullied on school engagement was less than those living in less supportive neighborhoods. No moderation effects of supportive neighborhoods were observed on behavioral problems (p>.05).

Conclusion and Implications:Consistent with social capital and social support theory, the current study concludes that living in a supportive neighborhood may act as a buffer between youth risk factors (particularly bullying) and school disengagement. School prevention and intervention strategies must include these neighborhoods in their design to increase school engagement, especially for youth experiencing or engaging in bullying, thereby potentially decreasing school absenteeism and dropout. Intentional inclusion of neighborhoods and residents can advance the recentering and democratizing of the knowledge informing these strategies. Implications for school social workers, educational policies/programming, and future research are discussed.