Identifying Moderators in the Association Between Bullying and Depression in Pennsylvania middle School Students

Open Access
- Author:
- Schneider, Katherine June
- Area of Honors:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Mark T Greenberg, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Kathryn Bancroft Hynes, Thesis Honors Advisor
Jennifer L Frank, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- Depression
Bullying
Gender
Grade
Prosocial involvement - Abstract:
- Bullying is detrimental to adolescents and can affect them physically, mentally, and socially. Depression is often a consequence of bullying and early onset depression can lead to outcomes such as unemployment and suicide. Anti-bullying interventions in schools have been very successful, but for optimal effectiveness, we need to continue to understand the relationship between bullying and depression and what factors influence that relationship. We measured sex, grade, and opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement as moderators in the relationship between bullying and depression. Utilizing data from the Pennsylvania Annual Youth Survey, we ran linear regressions from 610 middle schools across the state. From these analyses we learned that gender is related to bullying and therefore not an accurate moderator, females are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms than males. Depression increases with grade, despite the level of bullying behavior. Therefore certain grades may have more bullying behavior, but those students will not be more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms. Finally, the opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement were found to be a strong moderator that buffered the effects of bullying. These findings can help shape future interventions by specifically focusing on females who are predisposed to expressing depressive symptoms. Also, anti-bullying interventions may be placed in grades with higher levels of bullying, but it would be advantageous to have interventions in later grades to help students cope with depression whether or not it is related to bullying. Finally, the relationship the teachers develop with their students is one of the strongest protective factors against bullying. Anti-bullying programs need to address teachers as much as students to equip them with these skills.