Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2019

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

L. Christian Elledge

Committee Members

Jenny Macfie, Todd Moore, Delores Smith

Abstract

This study examined the factor structure, reliability, and concurrent validity of a new retrospective report measure assessing parent strategies for responding to school bullying. Prior studies have investigated the strategies that children use or teachers recommend for coping with or responding to school bullying, but few studies have considered the strategies that parents recommend to their children as an appropriate response to school bullying. Parents have substantial influence on young children’s behavior, and it is possible that parental guidance for how to respond to school bullying has implications for children’s peer victimization experiences as well as for their behavioral, social, and emotional functioning. The current investigation had 3 primary aims. The first objective was to identify the factor structure of a newly developed retrospective report measure assessing parent-suggested child strategies and beliefs toward responding to school bulling (PSBB) in a sample of 282 young adults. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 6-factor solution, and the factors were labeled Aggressive Retaliation, Ignore the Bully, Victim Support, Minimizing, Victim Blaming, and Parent Action. All factors align with previous research on response styles and strategies to manage bullying behavior. Internal consistency of each factor was good. Finally, the current investigation examined the concurrent validity of the retrospective parent strategies measure by examining correlations between factor scores on the parent-strategies measure and psychosocial outcomes, and the extent to which factors of the parent-strategies measure emerged as unique predictors of psychosocial outcomes. Aggressive Retaliation was associated with premeditated aggression, and multiple group path models revealed this was especially true for high school victims and chronic victims. Ignore the Bully was negatively associated with self-esteem and positively associated with peer victimization in elementary and high school. Victim Support was negatively associated with internalizing symptoms and self-esteem for both victims in high school and non-victims. Victim Blaming was negatively associated with self-esteem. Parent Action was negatively associated with victimization in high school, but only for non-victims. These findings provide initial support for the validity of the PSBB and support the need for more quantitative research examining the association between parent responses to school bullying and later psychosocial adjustment.

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