The Roles of Family Support and Peer Support on Bullying Behaviour Among Early Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Bullying is a significant concern among parents, educators, and policymakers in which both bullies and victims are at greater risk for later maladjustment (Swearer & Hymel, 2015). Despite extensive intervention efforts, bullying remains prevalent among school children. Previous literature has demonstrated the effect of support from peers on preventing and mitigating bullying behaviours (e.g., Colarossi & Eccles, 2003). However, little attention has been given to the protective role of perceived social support from family during early adolescence. Given that family relationships play a significant role in children’s psychosocial development (Hinde, 1979), the present study sought to examine the extent to which perceived social support from family predicted bullying behaviours among Canadian early adolescents. Based on past studies that have examined the protective roles of family on aggressive behaviour (e.g., Duggins et al., 2016), we hypothesized that: (1) perceived family support would negatively predict bullying behaviours, and (2) perceived family support would be comparable to perceived peer support in its association with bullying behaviours.

The study consisted of three hundred and twelve students (147 boys) in grades 4 to 7 in Western Canada. Participants completed the Relational Provisions Loneliness Questionnaire (RPLQ; Hayden-Thomson, 1989) to measure perceived peer support and family support, and the Bullying Survey Questionnaire (Hymel et al., 2002) to measure bullying behaviours.

A three-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted (see Table 1), the first step including adolescent gender and age as covariates to account for gender and age differences in bullying behaviour (Smith et al., 2019). Perceived family support was added in the second step to examine the extent to which it would predict bullying behaviours, and perceived peer support in the third step to explore its incremental contributions to predict bullying behaviours beyond what was accounted for by perceived family support. Results supported our hypotheses; social support from family was revealed to be a significant negative predictor of bullying behaviours among early adolescents, F(1, 308) = 25.43, B = -.13, p < .001. No gender (p = .54) or age (p = .19) differences were found. Moreover, perceived peer support showed an insignificant increase (R2Δ = .001, p = .55) to the overall model, and was not a significant predictor of bullying behaviours (B = -.02, p = .55). Meanwhile, perceived family support maintained statistical significance (B = -.12, p < .001) despite the addition of perceived peer support. These results indicated that perceived family support would be a stronger predictor of bullying behaviour than perceived peer support.

Findings from the present study corroborate the importance of perceived social support from the family among early adolescents and highlights the enduring impact of the family beyond childhood. Furthermore, results from the study have important implications when designing future bullying prevention and intervention programs. Specifically, programs should enhance parents’ awareness of fostering a positive, supportive, and warm environment for early adolescents to promote their social-emotional well-being and prevent bullying behaviours. Implications for future research and practice will be discussed in the poster presentation.

Authors

• Melody Zhang, McGill
  Presenting Author

• Ziyu Wang, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ryan Persram, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tracy Wong, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chiaki Konishi, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author