IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ben/tofams/v10y2018i1p9-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relationship between Peer Victimization, Perceived Parental Support, Family Characteristics and Internalizing Symptoms. A Cross-Sectional Study

Author

Listed:
  • Bachler Egon

    (Institute of Synergetic and Psychotherapy Research, PMU Paracelsus Medical University, Ignaz Harrer Street 79, Salzburg, Austria)

  • Nickel Marius

    (Medical University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria)

  • Bachler Herbert

    (Medical University of Graz, Clinic for Psychiatry, Graz, Austria)

Abstract

Background : Bullying and peer victimization are important, yet underestimated public health issues. Methods : Data were obtained in a sample of N=3454 children at the age of 12.6 (+/- 1.3) in Austria. 75% of the participants were not involved in bullying (uninvolved), 16% were victims, 4% bully/victims and 5% bullies. We applied a multivariate regression model relating to gender, established a classification into bullying and victimization, and investigated parental behavior, family characteristics, physical or mental illness of a parent, as well as internalizing symptoms of pupils. Results : Our data analysis demonstrated gender-related effects and the development of internalizing symptoms: Boys showed fewer internalizing symptoms than girls. Pupils with low perceived parental support displayed higher symptomatic scores. The variables of family break-up and parental health led to similar observations. Victims have an approximately 30% higher score on the internalizing scale than bullies and 60% higher scores than uninvolved. The results of the regression model indicated that these predictors explained 25% of the variance. Conclusion : School policies, teachers, parents, the media, school physicians, as well as GPs must recognize early warning signs of bullying and diligently assess risk behaviors. Early social support (by parents and teachers) is discussed as an important protective factor.

Suggested Citation

  • Bachler Egon & Nickel Marius & Bachler Herbert, 2018. "The Relationship between Peer Victimization, Perceived Parental Support, Family Characteristics and Internalizing Symptoms. A Cross-Sectional Study," The Open Family Studies Journal, Bentham Open, vol. 10(1), pages 9-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ben:tofams:v:10:y:2018:i:1:p:9-20
    DOI: 10.2174/1874922401810010009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOFAMSJ/TOFAMSJ-10-9.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOFAMSJ-10-9
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2174/1874922401810010009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Margaret A Sheridan & Khaled Sarsour & Douglas Jutte & Mark D'Esposito & W Thomas Boyce, 2012. "The Impact of Social Disparity on Prefrontal Function in Childhood," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-13, April.
    2. Wendy Craig & Yossi Harel-Fisch & Haya Fogel-Grinvald & Suzanne Dostaler & Jorn Hetland & Bruce Simons-Morton & Michal Molcho & Margarida Mato & Mary Overpeck & Pernille Due & William Pickett, 2009. "A cross-national profile of bullying and victimization among adolescents in 40 countries," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 54(2), pages 216-224, September.
    3. McLaughlin, K.A. & Costello, E.J. & Leblanc, W. & Sampson, N.A. & Kessler, R.C., 2012. "Socioeconomic status and adolescent mental disorders," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(9), pages 1742-1750.
    4. Randy A Sansone & Daron A Watts & Michael W Wiederman, 2014. "Being bullied in childhood, and pain and pain perception in adulthood," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(5), pages 449-453, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mary Callaghan & Colette Kelly & Michal Molcho, 2015. "Exploring traditional and cyberbullying among Irish adolescents," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(2), pages 199-206, February.
    2. Sánchez, Alan & Favara, Marta & Sheridan, Margaret & Behrman, Jere, 2024. "Does early nutrition predict cognitive skills during later childhood? Evidence from two developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Silvia Gabrielli & Silvia Rizzi & Sara Carbone & Enrico Maria Piras, 2021. "School Interventions for Bullying–Cyberbullying Prevention in Adolescents: Insights from the UPRIGHT and CREEP Projects," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-13, November.
    4. Adina Bucur & Sorin Ursoniu & Constantin Caraion-Buzdea & Virgil Ciobanu & Silvia Florescu & Cristian Vladescu, 2020. "Aggressive Behaviors among 15–16-Year-Old Romanian High School Students: Results from Two Consecutive Surveys Related to Alcohol and Other Drug Use at the European Level," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-14, May.
    5. Minqi Yang & Hanxiao Guo & Meimei Chu & Chongle Leng & Chunyu Qu & Kexin Tian & Yuying Jing & Mengge Xu & Xicheng Guo & Liuqi Yang & Xiaomeng Li, 2022. "Sex Differences in Traditional School Bullying Perpetration and Victimization among Adolescents: A Chain-Mediating Effect," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-12, August.
    6. Jorge J. Varela & Javier Guzmán & Jaime Alfaro & Fernando Reyes, 2019. "Bullying, Cyberbullying, Student Life Satisfaction and the Community of Chilean Adolescents," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 705-720, July.
    7. For-Wey Lung & Bih-Ching Shu & Tung-Liang Chiang & Shio-Jean Lin, 2020. "Relationships between internet use, deliberate self-harm, and happiness in adolescents: A Taiwan birth cohort pilot study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, July.
    8. Bracco, Emanuele & De Paola, Maria & Green, Colin & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2022. "The spillover of anti-immigration politics to the schoolyard," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Carney, JoLynn V. & Liu, Yanhong & Hazler, Richard J., 2018. "A path analysis on school bullying and critical school environment variables: A social capital perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 231-239.
    10. Danielle Shaked & Zachary B Millman & Danielle L Beatty Moody & William F Rosenberger & Hui Shao & Leslie I Katzel & Christos Davatzikos & Rao P Gullapalli & Stephen L Seliger & Guray Erus & Michele K, 2019. "Sociodemographic disparities in corticolimbic structures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, May.
    11. Elsaesser, Caitlin & Hong, Jun Sung & Voisin, Dexter R., 2016. "Violence exposure and bullying among African American adolescents: Examining the protective role of academic engagement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 394-402.
    12. Heidi Carlerby & Eija Viitasara & Anders Knutsson & Katja Gillander Gådin, 2013. "How Bullying Involvement is Associated with the Distribution of Parental Background and With Subjective Health Complaints Among Swedish Boys and Girls," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(3), pages 775-783, May.
    13. Sweeting, Helen & Hunt, Kate, 2014. "Adolescent socio-economic and school-based social status, health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 39-47.
    14. Olga Gómez-Ortiz & Carmen Apolinario & Eva M. Romera & Rosario Ortega-Ruiz, 2019. "The Role of Family in Bullying and Cyberbullying Involvement: Examining a New Typology of Parental Education Management Based on Adolescents’ View of Their Parents," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, January.
    15. Jorge J. Varela & Shazly Savahl & Sabirah Adams & Fernando Reyes, 2020. "Examining the Relationship Among Bullying, School Climate and Adolescent Well-Being in Chile and South Africa: a Cross Cultural Comparison," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(3), pages 819-838, June.
    16. Shaheen, Abeer M. & Hamdan, Khaldoun M. & Albqoor, Maha & Othman, Areej Khaleel & Amre, Huda M. & Hazeem, Mohammed Nabeel Abu, 2019. "Perceived social support from family and friends and bullying victimization among adolescents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. Bjereld, Ylva & Daneback, Kristian & Petzold, Max, 2017. "Do bullied children have poor relationships with their parents and teachers? A cross-sectional study of Swedish children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 347-351.
    18. Fernanda Inéz García-Vázquez & Angel Alberto Valdés-Cuervo & Lizeth Guadalupe Parra-Pérez, 2020. "The Effects of Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Self-Control on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Bullying," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-14, August.
    19. Hui Wang & Xiaolan Zhou & Ciyong Lu & Jie Wu & Xueqing Deng & Lingyao Hong & Xue Gao & Yuan He, 2012. "Adolescent Bullying Involvement and Psychosocial Aspects of Family and School Life: A Cross-Sectional Study from Guangdong Province in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-10, July.
    20. Liu, Myriam Chia-Chien & Lan, Chen-Chia & Hsu, Ju-Wei & Huang, Kai-Lin & Chen, Ying-Sheue, 2014. "Bullying victimization and conduct problems among high school students in Taiwan: Focus on fluid intelligence, mood symptoms and associated psychosocial adjustment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 231-238.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ben:tofams:v:10:y:2018:i:1:p:9-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Rehana Raza (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.