Poster #170 - Comparing Asian American, Southeast Asian, and European American adolescents' bullying typologies

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Studies of adolescent bullying typically identify four “types” of adolescents: (a) bullies – adolescents who engage in relatively high levels of bullying behaviors, but are less frequently targets of bullying; (b) bully-victims – adolescents who engage in bullying behaviors and are also frequently victimized by others; (c) victims – adolescents who report being victimized but not bullying others; and (d) uninvolved – adolescents who report low levels of bullying behaviors and victimization experiences (Lovegrove, Henry, & Slater, 2012). Moreover, studies also link bullying typologies to differential risk for negative outcomes. For example, bullies may engage in more externalizing behaviors, have lower social competence, and a higher frequency of school truancy, while victims may be rejected by peers more often and have greater internalizing symptoms (including depression or suicide ideation; Lovegrove and Dewey, 2014). Perhaps more importantly, bully-victims may have the most at-risk profile including greater rates of both externalizing, internalizing, school problems, and social problems (Cook et al., 2010). However, studies have rarely included samples of Asian American adolescents and more important, studies of bullying tend to treat Asians as a monolithic and pan-ethnic ethnocultural group. As such, there are gaps in understanding: (1) if Asian American adolescents are more/less likely to be classified into more at-risk bullying typologies, (2) if there are differences in risk for bullying by Asian sub-groups, and (3) if negative outcomes associated with bullying types vary across ethnicity. The purpose of this study, consequently, was to identify profiles of bullying with two samples of Asian American adolescents and to consider ethnic differences in typologies and outcomes.
Method
Data for this study included European American, (n = 11,840), Southeast Asian, (n = 334) and East Asian American (n = 362) students in 7th – 12th grade in one county in a midwestern state. Bullying and victimization experiences were assessed via adolescent self-reports of 8 items assessing both experiences of engaging in bullying behaviors towards other students and experiences of bullying directed towards the respondent. We also included two items indicative of psychological distress (i.e., suicide ideation and depression) and two items indicative of school-related problem behaviors (i.e., skipping school and being suspended).
Results
Mplus 7.4 was used to conduct latent class analysis (LCA). Results suggested that a 4-typology model provided the best fit to these data. Consistent with previous research, classes representing bullies, victims, bully-victims, and uninvolved adolescents (see Table 1 for conditional probabilities and sample proportions in each class) were found. The next set of analyses included a multinomial regression that regressed typology onto dummy-coded ethnicity variables with European Americans as the reference. Key findings suggested small, but significant increased likelihoods for both Asian groups to be in the uninvolved typology and less likely in the bully typology. Moreover, positive associations linking bully–victims to skipping school was stronger for Asian American adolescents than for Southeast Asian American and European American adolescents. Further, European American adolescents were more like to report depressive symptoms when in the victim typology than both groups of Asian Americans.

Authors

• andrew j supple, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kenneshia Williams, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author