School Bullying, Family Structure and Socioeconomic Status in the United States from 1989 to 2009: Repetitive Trends and Persistent Disadvantage

Qiang Fu, Duke University
Vicki L. Lamb, North Carolina Central University

Based on a zero-inflated Poisson model for combined and right-censored data, this research uses a nationally representative dataset, the Monitoring the Future (MTF) project, to analyze the trends, changes of school bullying and the differential exposure of demographic, social and economic groups to school bullying over time. Our analyses point to the persistent disadvantage of 12th graders from single-parent & no-parent families in terms of both the proportion exposed to bullying behaviors and the intensity of bullying victimization. Meanwhile, we found that the recent upsurge of the intensity of bullying in the 2002-2009 years is similar to what happened in the early 1990s—but the current one is more dramatic. Furthermore, 12th graders with the following socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics suffer more from school bullying: male, rural residency, less-educated parents, African Americans, weaker religious orientation, rare or no religious attendance, and inferior school performance.