Parent-child concordance regarding perceptions of bullying in early adolescence
Open Access
- Author:
- Fischer, Alicia
- Graduate Program:
- School Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 27, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Cristin Marie Hall, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Jennifer L Frank, Committee Member
Maryellen Schaub, Committee Member
Cristin Marie Hall, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Daniel F Perkins, Outside Member
James Clyde Diperna, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- bullying
victimization
parent involvement
parent-child agreement
low socio-economic status - Abstract:
- Bullying and peer victimization are international phenomena that can lead to, or worsen a child’s emotional problems, having lasting effects into adulthood (Arsenault, 2017; Holt, Kaufman Kantor, & Finkelhor, 2009; Calvete, Fernandez-Gonzalez, Gonzalez-Cabrera, & Gamez-Guadix, 2018). Parent involvement has been known to be a protective factor for youth across a variety of domains (Kelly et al., 2012; Stone, 2006; Pelgrina, Garcia-Linares, & Casanova, 2003; Sheldon, 2002). However, parents and caregivers and their youth often have differing views on the prevalence of bullying and victimization (Pelgrina et al., 2003). Previous research has shown that results are mixed as to whether parental monitoring and positive parent-child relationships have an effect on bullying behaviors (Shetgiri et al., 2012; Stavrinides et al., 2015; Top et al., 2017).The current study sought to add to the previous literature by examining the factors that affect caregiver and youth ratings of bullying and victimization behaviors. It was hypothesized that caregiver involvement, supervision and rules, positive parenting, and caregiver perceptions of youth friend group would have a significant effect on both youth and caregiver-reported bullying and victimization behaviors. Furthermore, youth and caregiver agreement on victimization behaviors was assessed through intra-class correlations; it was hypothesized that agreement ratings would fall in a low-to-medium range. Results from the current study indicated that caregiver involvement was a significant factor in reduced caregiver reporting of youth aggression and social problems. Surprisingly, caregiver reported positive parenting and parental monitoring were not significant. Youth-reported positive parenting had a significant effect on both victimization-related and bullying-related behaviors. Supervision and rules was also a significant factor in youth-reported sense of safety and popularity metrics. Contrary to previous research, youth-reported caregiver involvement was not a significant factor across the dependent variables. Concordance between youth and caregiver ratings of victimization behaviors did support previous research studies’ findings, as agreement between the raters fell in a low range.