Links Between Depression and Substance Use in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Bully Victimization

• In Event: Youth Victimization: Diverse Contexts and Psychosocial Consequences

Abstract

Research has documented that bully victimization is associated with negative mental health outcomes for adolescents including anxiety, depression, and suicide (Barchia & Bussey, 2010; Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Skapinakis et al., 2011). Bully victimization has also been associated with substance initiation and use (Mitchell et al., 2007, Sullivan et al., 2006). Similarly, research has shown that there is a relation between depression and subsequent AOD use in adolescents (Wu et al., 2008). A recent study found that depression mediated the association between bullying victimization and alcohol and drug (AOD) use among adolescents (Luk, Wang, & Simons-Morton, 2010). However, this study used cross-sectional data and other similar studies are limited by small sample sizes. This lack of longitudinal studies limits the inferences about the directionality of these relations.
This study addresses this gap in the literature and uses longitudinal data to examine the relationship between bully victimization, depression, and AOD. Depression is likely to impair peer interactions, making youth a target for bullying. This additional emotional stress is likely to lead to unhealthy coping strategies by youth, including increased AOD use. Therefore, it was hypothesized that depression would be associated with great peer victimization which would then in turn be associated with greater AOD use over time.
Participants included 1,132 middle school students from four schools in a mid-western city (51% female; 34% Caucasian, 51% Black, 15% Other). Data were collected over three waves (Spring 2008, Fall 2008, and Spring 09) and included three cohorts (5th, 6th, and 7th graders in 2008). Participants completed a survey including demographic variables and a wide range of self-report scales, which yielded reliable and valid scores and strong internal consistency.
Longitudinal structural equation modeling using MPlus 5 was used to examine the relations among latent variables representing bully victimization, depression, and AOD use. An item-to-construct balance method was used to develop parcels for the scales (Little et al., 2002). The measurement model was established and demonstrated a good fit χ2 (261, n = 1132) = 753.142; RMSEA = .040 (0.036 ; 0.043); NNFI = 0.986; CFI = 0.989. Longitudinal factorial invariance up to the level of strong factorial invariance was tested and supported. Using the Cole and Maxwell (2003) framework the mediation model was tested. In addition, a bootstrap approach was used which relies on resampling to determine the appropriate standard error for significance testing (MacKinnon et al., 2002). The overall indirect effect, although small (0.21), was significant at the p < .05 level, indicating mediation. With the mediation path, the direct effect of depression to alcohol and other drug use was no longer significant at 0.034 (p=0.349) indicating full mediation. The results of the model tested are shown in Figure 1.
These results indicate that unlike what previous cross-section research has postulated, bully victimization mediates the relation between depression and subsequent AOD use. It is possible that youth who are already struggling emotionally might be the targets of bullying, which in turn might lead to their using alcohol and other drugs to cope emotionally.

Author

• Mrinalini Rao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign