ADHD and School Bullying Perpetration in Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Parental Maltreatment and Peer Victimization

Background/Purpose: Given that the school setting occupies a significant portion of adolescents’ daily life, experiences of and exposure to school violence are serious concerns for adolescent wellbeing. With the steady increase in bullying rates in South Korea over the past decade, a bulk of research has examined factors related to this experience. Some previous research has attributed ADHD symptoms, referring to mechanisms of higher aggression and lower self-control, to explain school bullying perpetration. However, the focus on these traits creates the risk of reinforcing stigma towards adolescents with ADHD, while overlooking contextual factors that may contribute to their involvement in school bullying. This study aims to overcome this limitation by examining how contextual factors—particularly parental maltreatment and peer victimization experience—moderate the relationship between ADHD and school bullying perpetration.

Methods: Using latent class analysis on data (N = 6,689) from the 2021 Youth’s Mental Health Survey in Korea distinct groups of maltreatment and victimized adolescents were identified. Multivariate moderation regression analyses examined the moderating role of unique experiences of maltreatment and bullying victimization on the relationship between ADHD and school bullying perpetration. ADHD was measured using the Conners-Wells’ Adolescent Self-Report Scale. School bullying perpetration was assessed using a 7-item questionnaire representing the experience of school bullying (e.g., severe teasing or mocking, ostracism or exclusion, beating, threat, taking money or belongings, verbal abuse, sexually assault or harassment of others within a 1-year-span). School bullying victimization experience was measured using a similar 7-item questionnaire. Adolescent maltreatment experience was assessed using a 8-item questionnaire evaluating adolescents’ interaction with their guardian (e.g., emotional support, physical care, harsh discipline). Covariates included gender, grade level, school enrollment status, and economic background.

Results: Four latent classes were derived: polyvictimization (2.06%), family neglect (8.79%), family abuse (7.91%), and low risk (81.24%). Adolescents in the polyvictimization and family abuse classes exhibited the highest level of ADHD mean score, followed by the family neglect class, and then the low risk class. Similarly, the average bullying perpetration score was highest for adolescents in the polyvictimization class, followed by family abuse and family neglect classes, then the low risk class. Across all groups, higher ADHD scores were significantly associated with increased bullying perpetration. Furthermore, the size of this relationship was greatest for the polyvictimization latent class, followed by the family abuse class, low risk and family neglect classes.

Conclusions and Implications: The result of the study underscores the significance of the environmental and social context of bullying perpetration among adolescents with ADHD. The increased levels of bullying perpetration for polyvictimization and family abuse groups suggest that, unlike conventional understanding, the effect of ADHD on bullying perpetration does not operate solely, but rather is influenced by external factors. With the varying results across different types of abuse and victimization, more attention is needed in understanding the role of different experiences in the exacerbation of bullying perpetration.