Citation

Walters GD, Kremser J, Runell L. Aggressive Behav. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Criminal Justice, Kutztown University, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.21885

PMID

32115729

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether parental support and knowledge moderate the relationship between bullying perpetration and delinquency. A sample of 305 middle school students (141 boys, 164 girls; 10-12 years of age) served as participants in this study. The research hypothesis predicted that parental support and knowledge would moderate the prospective bullying-delinquency relationship. Testing this hypothesis with least squares regression parametric coefficients and percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals, parental support received full support and parental knowledge no support as factors potentially capable of reducing risk for future delinquency by interacting with prior bullying perpetration. Whereas parental support decreased the odds of high bullying boys engaging in future delinquency-an outcome consistent with the view that parenting can serve a protective function against future offending by neutralizing the risk effect of bullying-parental knowledge failed to reduce future delinquency in children who bullied, although it did have a direct ameliorative effect on future delinquency. The protective effect was strongest when parental support was high and parental knowledge low, whereas the risk effect was strongest when parental support was low and parental knowledge was medium to high. These results suggest that protective and risk effects are limited to certain combinations of protective and risk factors.

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

bullying; delinquency; moderation; parental knowledge; parental support