Bullying, Academic Performance, and High School Dropout in Adolescence

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Bullying, Academic Performance, and High School Dropout in Adolescence Victoria Hirsch1, Meredith Henry, Sylvie Mrug1 and Michael Windle2 1University of Alabama at Birmingham; 2Emory University Measures Introduction Results (continued) • Bullying and Victimization at Wave 1 • “In the last year, how many times did you bully someone at school?” • “In the last year, how many times were you bullied at school?” • Four bullying categories were derived: • Bully only (bullied 3+ times but was not bullied) • Victim only (was bullied 3+ times but did not bully) • Bully – victim (bullied 3+ times and was bullied) • Uninvolved (did not bully and was not bullied) • Academic performance at Waves 1 and 2 • Parents reported child grades on a scale from 1 (mostly D’s and F’s) to 5 (mostly A’s and B’s) • High school dropout at Wave 3 • Youth who reported not being enrolled at school and completing less than 12th grade were classified as high school dropouts • 30% of US youths report involvement in bullying (Tonja et al., 2001) GIVE MORE DETAILS ON RATES OF BULLYING AND VICTIMIZATION AND SPECIFY THAT SOME CHILDREN ARE INVOLVED IN BOTH (BULLY-VICTIMS) • There are both short and long term negative physical and psychological effects of bullying to both the bully and victim (Ttofi et al., 2008) • In-school bullying has negative impact on student academic engagement (Mehta et al., 2013), as well as academic achievement and absenteeism (Dake et al., 2003). • In turn, low student engagement, poor academic achievement, and absenteeism predict school drop out (REFERENCES NEEDED; ??? (Battin-Pearson et al., 2000)) DON’T MENTION VARIABLES YOU ARE NOT ANALYZING, LIKE DEVIANT PEERS; INTRO NEEDS TO BE FOCUSED • INDICATE WHAT IS MISSING FROM THE LITERATURE THAT YOUR STUDY IS ADDRESSING – PERHAPS FEW STUDIES EXAMINED THE SEQUENCE OF BULLYING -? POOR GRADES -> DROPOUT STARTING IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE • This study evaluates whether bullying in preadolescence contributes to poor academic performance in early adolescence, and in turn whether poor academic performance in early adolescence predicts later school dropout • YOU FOUND NOTHING WORTH MENTIONING FOR GENDER DIFFERENCES SO YOU MAY AS WELL LEAVE THEM OUT Main analyses (cont.): Dropout at age 18 was predicted by household income, parental education, and academic performance at age 11. • Dropout was not predicted by bullying or victimization. • Nor was it predicted by academic performance at age 13. • However, strong negative correlations do exist between dropout at both grades at age 11 (r = -.26, p<.001) and grades at age 13 (r=-.21, p<.001). • INSERT TABLE WITH MULTIPLE REGRESSION RESULTS (ALL IN ONE STEP) Conclusions Analyses • Large number of students in this study (40%) reported involvement in bullying. REALLY THAT HIGH? I DON’T THINK YOU CAN COMPARE IT TO THE NATIONAL RATES IF THE QUESTIONS WERE DIFFERENT. GIVE MORE BREAKDOWN ON THE SUBTYPES. • Victimization, but not bullying, was predictive of poorer academic performance in early adolescence. ADD THAT THIS IS CONSISTENT WITH OTHER STUDIES – EG RECENT META-ANALYSIS BY DAVID SCHWARTZ AND NAKAMOTO (?). HOW MAY VICTIMIZATION CONTRIBUTE TO POOR GRADES/ GIVE SOME EXPLANATIONS • Poorer academic performance, in turn, predicted high school dropout. ALSO LINK THIS WITH LITERATURE ON PREDICTORS OF DROPOUT AND EXPLAIN HOW IT MAY CONTRIBUTE-LOTS OF LITERATURE ON THIS, SO REFER TO THAT • However, after accounting for grades, victimization did not uniquely predict high school drop out. This suggests that the effects of peer victimization on dropout is fully explained by decreases in academic performance. • Broad scale adoption of whole-school anti-bullying interventions and increased academic support for victims of bullying may help prevent worsening grades and eventual school drop out in this vulnerable group of youth. 1) Multiple linear regression predicting Wave 2 academic performance from Wave 1 bullying categories • Adjusting for Wave 1 academic performance, gender, ethnicity, household income, and parental education 2) Logistic regression predicting high school dropout from Wave 2 academic performance and Wave 1 bullying • Adjusting for gender, ethnicity, household income, and parental education Results Descriptive Statistics: • 283 individuals were classified as being involved with bullying in schools. [Insert pie chart] • Average academic performance at Wave 1: 3.86 • Average academic performance at Wave 2: 4.05 Main analyses: Poor academic performance at age 13 was predicted by victimization at age 11, gender, and academic performance age 11. • INSERT TABLE WITH MULTIPLE REGRESSION RESULTS (ALL IN ONE STEP) Sample • Adolescents participating in the Birmingham Youth Violence Study • Mean age • 11.8 years at Wave 1 (N=704) • 13.2 years at Wave 2 (N=603) • 18.0 years at Wave 3 (N=480) • 52% male • 78% African-American, 20% Caucasian Poster presented on April 16, 2014, at the OST Conference at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The first author can be reached by e-mail at vchir@uab.edu