Bias-Based Bullying of Youth with Disabilities: Understanding Outcomes and Fostering Peer Bystander Intervention

• In Event: Bullying and Exclusion of Differently Abled Youth: Perspectives, Outcomes and Approaches to Foster Inclusion

Abstract

Children and adolescents who experience bias-based bullying, which is bullying that is focused on one’s group membership or identity, for instance, are at much greater risk for negative outcomes than those who experience bullying that is not based on group membership (Mulvey et al., 2018; Russell et al., 2012). However, less is known, specifically, about outcomes for youth who experience bias-based bullying because of a disability. Moreover, little is known about whether children and adolescents as bystanders will support peers who experience biased-based bullying based on a disability. We present the results of two studies addressing these gaps in the literature.
Study 1: Negative Outcomes of Disability-Based Bullying
Methods. Data from the 2015 National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement on adolescents aged 12-18 who reported experiences of bullying (N = 678, 44.2% male) were analyzed to examine differential negative outcomes (physical, psychological and academic) for youth who experience disability-based bullying, bias-based bullying for other reasons (such as race) and for those who experience generalized bullying.
Results. ANOVA analyses document that youth who report disability-based bullying report more negative effects of bullying, and greater fear than do youth who report generalized bullying, although there were not significant differences between those who report disability-based and other types of bias-based bullying, see Figure 1.
Study 2: Inclusion of Youth with Disabilities and Bystander Intervention to Prevent Disability-Based Bullying.
Methods. Youth (N = 90, 57.8% female, 9-12 years) assessed scenarios involving bullying of peers with disabilities. Participants responded to items about including peers with disabilities and intervening if peers with disabilities are bullied.
Results. Regression analyses revealed that children’s expectations of how inclusive their peers would be toward youth with disabilities were related to participants’ own inclusion expectations b = 0.392, t(82) = 4.319, p < .001, suggesting the powerful impact of peer norms around bullying. Furthermore, participants’ moral judgments about the harmful nature of bullying, b = −0.788, t(84) = −3.376, p < .001, and their own rates of aggressive behavior (b = −0.187, t(82) = −2.744 p = .007) were associated with their likelihood of intervening if they observed youth with disabilities being victimized. Participants indicated that they would engage in a range of intervention behaviors, including confronting the bully, getting help from others, and helping the victim.
Discussion. Study 1 documents that bias-based bullying, including based on disability, is especially problematic and associated with negative outcomes, fear and school avoidance compared to generalized bullying. Study 2 documents that youth want to include peers with disabilities, but that peer norms may shape their inclusivity. Further, the more wrong youth recognize disability-based bullying to be, the more they are likely to intervene. These results suggest the importance of anti-bullying efforts specifically targeting bullying of youth with disabilities.

Authors

• Kelly Lynn S Mulvey, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author

• Secil Gonultas, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author