Bullying and Substance Use in Early Adolescence: Investigating the Longitudinal and Reciprocal Effects Over 3 Years Using the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model

Abstract

Bullying and substance use among adolescents have been increasingly studied in the field of developmental psychology, but research to date has primarily investigated the cross-sectional relationship and, to a lesser extent, the long-term impact of bullying on substance use. Grounded in the General Theory of Crime, this study focused on the longitudinal reciprocal relationships between bullying and substance use (i.e., smoking and alcohol consumption) during early to mid-adolescence, which is a critical developmental phase. We aimed to investigate the hypothesis of a reinforcing downward spiral at the within-person level. Moreover, we intended to examine gender differences in the expected longitudinal relationships. Our analyses are based on selfreport data for bullying and substance use collected from 1,495 adolescents (746 males; M age at T1 = 12.42, SD = 0.58) at three waves between 2017 and 2019. We applied the random intercept cross-lagged panel model to separate within-person from between-person effects. At the between-person level, the mutual association between bullying and substance use, previously demonstrated in cross-sectional studies, was confirmed. At the within-person level, results provide evidence of a significant agedependent change in bullying and substance use from 13 to 14 years old, where the significant increase in bullying could be attributed to females but not to males. We also found a gender-independent significant positive effect of bullying at 12 years old on substance use at 13 years, but not vice versa. Thus, the hypothesis of a reinforcing downward spiral, shown by significant positive reciprocal effects, did not find support. According to the General Theory of Crime, our findings underline that bullying can be considered a context-related factor inasmuch as it pushes adolescents to smoke and drink, which are both expressions of low levels of self-control, which need to be considered in intervention programs to effectively prevent unhealthy and risky behaviors in adolescence.

Factors associated with cyberbullying among vocational students based on the ecological system model in an ethnic minority area

“…This study's findings also support that CB perpetration is associated with parenting styles, which is consistent with other bullying studies. In particular, recent research [ 32 ] has reported that negative parenting (especially parenting styles related to high levels of control or punishment) increases the likelihood of adolescents developing externalized and aggressive behaviors, consistent with the findings of this study. In China and within Asian society in general, parenting styles, which include practices such as high levels of monitoring and support, seem to be better at mitigating adolescent aggression than other cultural contexts.…”

“…[ 21 ] The students who reported living with neither parent may have had a poor family self-concept and experienced communication problems frequently with their parents, leading to a more depressive mood, feelings of loneliness, and fewer socio-emotional skills, increasing their risk of impulsiveness and victimization during social networking. [ 32 ] Lu et al [ 33 ] found that students who experienced family violence might be predictive of bullying perpetration. One theoretical explanation for the link between witnessing violence and bullying perpetration in adolescence is a social learning theory, which posits that youths model behavior from others.…”

“…It is worth noting that parental care reduced the probability of victimization. [ 32 ] Thus, interventions seeking to promote measures to combat CB may wish to include education that bolsters knowledge of adaptive parenting with a specific concentration on parental warmth and communication as a protective approach to facilitate positive CB-related communication. [ 23 , 24 ] Peer relationships during adolescence become more private and sensitive, and many adolescents openly choose to exclude parents from their online interactions, which suggests that parents are less competent at monitoring their adolescent children's friendships and peer interactions online.…”

“…[ 31 ] First, adolescents lacking previous experience in handling conflicts in their interpersonal relationships might explain their involvement in CB. [ 32 ] Second, their sense of poor peer relationships could frustrate their interpersonal needs, thereby increasing the risk of CB. Third, suffering experiences of detachment from a peer may increase their perceived burden and hatred.…”

“…It is plausible that adolescents with poor peer relations might discuss CV less often with their friends and gain less support when such experiences occur. [ 31 , 32 ] The perception of a lack of reciprocal caring relationships with one's peers, which provides a feeling of belonging and support, may cause an adolescent to experience greater feelings of loneliness and to assess their social network more negatively. [ 32 , 33 ] According to researches, [ 16 , 20 , 21 ] having social friends influences students’ CB or CV.…”