Bullying Victimization among Mexican Adolescents: Psychosocial Differences from an Ecological Approach.

This transversal study over a random representative sample of 1687 Mexican students attending public and private secondary schools (54% girls, 12-17 years old, M = 13.65. DT = 1.14) aimed to analyze psychosocial differences between victims and non-victims of bullying from the bioecological model. It included individual variables (ontosystem), familiar, community, and scholar factors (microsystem), and gender (macrosystem) to perform a multivariate discriminant analysis and a logistic regression analysis. The discriminant analysis found that psychological distress, offensive communication with mother and father, and a positive attitude toward social norms transgression characterized the high victimization cluster. For the non-victims, the discriminant variables were community implication, positive attitude toward institutional authority, and open communication with the mother. These variables allowed for correctly predicting membership in 76% of the cases. Logistic regression analysis found that psychological distress, offensive communication with the father, and being a boy increased the probability of high victimization, while a positive attitude toward authority, open communication with the mother, and being a girl decrease this probability. These results highlight the importance of open and offensive communication between adolescents and their parents on psychological distress, attitude toward authority, community implication, and bullying victimization.

Las relaciones intrafamiliares de apoyo como mecanismo explicativo de la conducta violenta en adolescentes escolarizados / Supportive Intrafamily Relationships as explanatory Mechanism of Violent Behavior in Scholarized Adolescents

Resumen El objetivo del presente estudio fue analizar la participación de los adolescentes en conductas violentas, a partir de un modelo estructural, en una muestra aleatoria y estratificada de 1 498 estudiantes de 5.º y 6.º de primaria y de los tres niveles de secundaria de escuelas públicas de Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México. Se utilizaron cuestionarios de autoinforme con respuestas Likert, midiendo violencia escolar, funcionamiento familiar y actitud hacia la autoridad. Las conductas violentas correlacionaron negativamente con el buen funcionamiento familiar (valores altos de unión/apoyo). El funcionamiento familiar correlacionó negativamente con la conducta violenta de forma indirecta, a través de la actitud hacia la autoridad institucional y la transgresión de normas. Finalmente se discuten los resultados.

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyze the students´ participation in violent behavior in a sample of 1498 adolescents attending 5th and 6th grades (elementary school) and the three levels of middle school in public schools of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México, using a structural model. We utilized self-report questionnaires with Likert-type answers, measuring school violence, family function and attitude toward institutional authority. Results revealed that violent behavior in school were negatively related with a good family function (high scores of family union and support). Good family function related indirectly and negatively with violent behavior through attitude towards institutional authority and rules transgression. Finally, we discuss the findings.