Abstract
To tackle adolescent bullying and identify students most vulnerable to being bullied, it is essential to examine both occurrences of bullying behaviors and students’ own likelihoods of reporting bullying. This study examines ethnic and gender differences in students’ odds of reporting bullying using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative study of United States high school sophomores (N = 15,362; ages 15–19; 50.2% female). Compared to White and female students, minority (particularly Black and Hispanic) and male students report comparable or greater experiences of bullying behaviors (such as being threatened, hit, put down by peers, or having belongings forced from them, stolen or damaged), but are less likely to report that they have been “bullied.” These findings point to racialized and gendered differences in reporting bullying experiences such that indicators of “weakness” in peer relations may carry a greater stigma for minority and male students.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Sandra Graham, Anthony Peguero, and Roger Waldinger for comments and suggestions during the development of the study and the revision of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Bernard Koch and Michelle Wong for help in copy-editing and formatting the manuscript.
Authors’ Contributions
T.L. conceived of the study, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript. G.K. conceived of the study and helped draft the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
Funding
The first author acknowledges funding from the Summer Research –Early Identification Program at the University of Pennsylvania and the Leadership Alliance. The second author gratefully acknowledges support from the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2016-LAB-2250002).
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The authors do not conduct studies with human participants for the purposes of this article.
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The National Center for Education Statistics obtained informed consent from the parents or guardians of the participants in the Education Longitudinal Study.
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Lai, T., Kao, G. Hit, Robbed, and Put Down (but not Bullied): Underreporting of Bullying by Minority and Male Students. J Youth Adolescence 47, 619–635 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0748-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0748-7