Adolescents’ Victimization and Perpetration of Bullying and Their Built Environment: Exploring the Protective Effect of Family Resilience

Abstract

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that roughly 19% of adolescents in the United States experience bullying victimization. Additionally, many adolescents engage in bullying perpetration and victimization or both, making bullying a persistent public and social issue. As adolescents grow, their social interactions expand beyond the family, increasing their exposure to external environmental influences. Despite its prevalence, limited research has explored how built environments and family resilience interact to influence bullying behaviors. Guided by the ecological model, this study examined the effects of environmental stressors, including neighborhood variables (physical disorder, neighborhood violence/safety, and lack of neighborhood support), school variables (lack of school engagement, lack of school safety), racial discrimination, and family resilience on bullying victimization and perpetration among adolescents. Using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (n = 21,573) of adolescents aged 11 to 17 years, hierarchical logistic regression was employed to analyze interaction effects. Results revealed that the interaction between lack of school engagement and family resilience reduced the odds of victimization, rendering the previously significant main effect of lack of school engagement (OR = 1.46, CI [1.39, 1.54]) nonsignificant (OR = 1.04, CI [0.86, 1.27]). Similarly, the interaction between racial discrimination and family resilience decreased the likelihood of both perpetration and victimization, lowering the main effect odds (OR = 2.70, CI [2.21, 3.31]) to nonsignificant levels (OR = 1.39, CI [0.70, 2.77]). These findings highlight the protective role of family resilience in buffering against the negative impacts of external stressors, significantly reducing the probability of bullying outcomes.