Abstract
Experiencing bullying as a victim is associated with negative health and health behavior outcomes, including substance use, among adolescents. However, understandings of protective factors—factors that enhance adolescents’ resilience to the negative consequences of bullying—remain limited. The current study investigates whether teacher involvement protects adolescent students from the association between being bullied due to race and smoking initiation. Students were recruited from 12 Kindergarten through 8th grade schools in an urban school district in the Northeast United States. The analytic sample included 769 students who responded to surveys in 5th or 6th grade (2009), and two years later in 7th or 8th grade (2011). Students primarily identified as Latino and/or Black, and 90 % were eligible for free or reduced lunch. Fifty-four (7 %) students initiated smoking between survey time points. Among students reporting lower teacher involvement, race-based bullying was associated with higher likelihood of smoking initiation (OR \(=\) 1.69, \(p =0.03\)). In contrast, among students reporting higher teacher involvement, race-based bullying was not associated with higher likelihood of smoking initiation (OR \(=\) 0.95, \(p =0.81\)). Results suggest that teacher involvement may protect students from the association between race-based bullying and smoking initiation. Enhancing teacher involvement among students experiencing race-based bullying in schools may limit smoking initiation.
References
Agresti, A. (2007). An introduction to categorical data analysis. USA: Wiley.
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Baldry, A. C., & Farrington, D. P. (2005). Protective factors as moderators of risk factors in adolescence bullying. Social Psychology of Education, 8(3), 263–284. doi:10.1007/s11218-005-5866-5.
Barbeau, E. M., Krieger, N., & Soobader, M. J. (2004). Working class matters: Socioeconomic disadvantage, race/ethnicity, gender, and smoking in NHIS 2000. American Journal of Public Health, 94(2), 269–278. doi:10.2105/AJPH.94.2.269.
Bennett, G. G., Wolin, K. Y., Robinson, E. L., Fowler, S., & Edwards, C. L. (2005). Perceived racial/ethnic harassment and tobacco use among African American young adults. American Journal of Public Health, 95(2), 238–240. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.037812.
Bibou-Nakou, I., Tsiantis, J., Assimopoulos, H., Chatzilambou, P., & Giannakopoulou, D. (2012). School factors related to bullying: A qualitative study of early adolescent students. Social Psychology of Education, 15, 125–145. doi:10.1007/s11218-012-9179-1.
Brody, G. H., Chen, Y.-F., Murry, V. M., Ge, X., Simons, R. L., Gibbons, F. X., et al. (2006). Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: A five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects. Child Development, 77(5), 1170–1189. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00927.x.
Chassin, L., Presson, C. C., Rose, J. S., & Sherman, S. J. (1996). The natural history of cigarette smoking from adolescence to adulthood: Demographic predictors of continuity and change. Health Psychology, 15(6), 478–484. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.15.6.478.
Chassin, L., Presson, C. C., Sherman, S. J., & Edwards, D. A. (1990). The natural history of cigarette smoking: Predicting young–adult smoking outcomes from adolescent smoking patterns. Health Psychology, 9(6), 701–716. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.9.6.701.
Connecticut Mastery Test. (2010). Connecticut State Department of Education. Retrieved August 11, 2011 from http://www.csde.state.ct.us/public/cedar/assessment/cmt/index.htm.
Dovidio, J., & Gaertner, S. (2004). Aversive racism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 36, 1–52. Retrieved http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0065260104360016.
Fekkes, M. (2004). Bullying: Who does what, when and where? Involvement of children, teachers and parents in bullying behavior. Health Education Research, 20(1), 81–91. doi:10.1093/her/cyg100.
Fleming, L. C., & Jacobsen, K. H. (2009). Bullying among middle-school students in low and middle income countries. Health Promotion International, 25(1), 73–84. doi:10.1093/heapro/dap046.
Gibbons, F. X., Etcheverry, P. E., Stock, M. L., Gerrard, M., Weng, C.-Y., Kiviniemi, M., et al. (2010). Exploring the link between racial discrimination and substance use: What mediates? What buffers? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(5), 785–801. doi:10.1037/a0019880.
Gibbons, F. X., Gerrard, M., Cleveland, M. J., Wills, T. A., & Brody, G. (2004). Perceived discrimination and substance use in African American parents and their children: A panel study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(4), 517–529. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.4.517.
Gibbons, F. X., O’Hara, R. E., Stock, M. L., Gerrard, M., Weng, C.-Y., & Wills, T. A. (2012). The erosive effects of racism: Reduced self-control mediates the relation between perceived racial discrimination and substance use in African American adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 1089–1104. doi:10.1037/a0027404.
Global Youth Tobacco Survey. (2008). Centers for Disase Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 11, 2011 from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/global/.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity (1st Touchstone Eds.). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Haines, J. (2006). Weight teasing and disordered eating behaviors in adolescents: Longitudinal findings from Project EAT (Eating Among Teens). Pediatrics, 117(2), e209–e215.
Hussein, M. H. (2010). The peer interaction in primary school questionnaire: Testing for measurement equivalence and latent mean differences in bullying between gender in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the USA. Social Psychology of Education, 13, 57–76. doi:10.1007/s11218-009-9098-y.
Knack, J. M., Jensen-Campbell, L. A., & Baum, A. (2011). Worse than sticks and stones? Bullying is associated with altered HPA axis functioning and poorer health. Brain and Cognition, 77(2), 183–190. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2011.06.011.
Krieger, N., Smith, K., Naishadham, D., Hartman, C., & Barbeau, E. M. (2005). Experiences of discrimination: Validity and reliability of a self-report measure for population health research on racism and health. Social Science & Medicine, 61(7), 1576–1596. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.03.006.
Lewis, T. (2007). PROC LOGISTIC: The logistics behind interpreting categorical variable effects. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Northeast SAS User’s Group (NESUG) conference. Baltimore, MD.
Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363–385. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363.
Masten, A. S., Best, K. M., & Garmezy, N. (1990). Resilience and development: Contributions from the study of children who overcome adversity. Development and Psychopathology, 2(04), 425. doi:10.1017/S0954579400005812.
McNeely, C., & Falci, C. (2004). School connectedness and the transition into and out of health-risk behavior among adolescents: A comparison of social belonging and teacher support. Journal of School Health, 74(7), 284–292. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2004.tb08285.x.
Nansel, T. R. (2001). Bullying behaviors among US youth: Prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16), 2094–2100. doi:10.1001/jama.285.16.2094.
Neumark-Sztainer, D., Falkner, N., Story, M., Perry, C., Hannan, P. J., & Mulert, S. (2002). Weight-teasing among adolescents: Correlations with weight status and disordered eating behaviors. International Journal of Obesity, 26(1), 123–131. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0801853.
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Olweus, D. (1996). Bullying at school: Knowledge base and an effective intervention program. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 794(1), 265–276. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1996.tb32527.x.
Peterson, A. V., Leroux, B. G., Bricker, J., Kealey, K. A., Marek, P. M., Sarason, I. G., et al. (2006). Addictive Behaviors, 31, 788–801. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.06.003.
Rigby, K., & Smith, P. K. (2011). Is school bullying really on the rise? Social Psychology of Education, 14, 441–455. doi:10.1007/s11218-011-9158-y.
Rosenthal, L., Carroll-Scott, A., Earnshaw, V. A., Sackey, N., O’Malley, S., Santilli, A., et al. (2013). Understanding barriers and motivations to quitting among urban adult daily tobacco smokers. Addictive Behaviors, 38, 1639–1642.
Rothon, C., Head, J., Klineberg, E., & Stansfeld, S. (2011). Can social support protect bullied adolescents from adverse outcomes? A prospective study on the effects of bullying on the educational achievement and mental health of adolescents at secondary schools in East London. Journal of Adolescence, 34(3), 579–588. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.02.007.
Simons, R. L., Simons, L. G., Burt, C. H., Drummund, H., Stewart, E., Brody, G. H., et al. (2006). Supportive parenting moderates the effect of discrimination upon anger, hostile view of relationships, and violence among African American boys. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47(4), 373–389. doi:10.1177/002214650604700405.
Wang, J., Iannotti, R. J., & Nansel, T. R. (2009). School bullying among adolescents in the United States: Physical, verbal, relational, and cyber. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(4), 368–375. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.03.021.
Weiss, J. W., Mouttapa, M., Cen, S., Johnson, C. A., & Unger, J. (2011). Longitudinal effects of hostility, depression, and bullying on adolescent smoking initiation. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48(6), 591–596. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.09.012.
Whitbeck, L. B., Hoyt, D. R., McMorris, B. J., Chen, X., & Stubben, J. D. (2001). Perceived discrimination and early substance abuse among American Indian children. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 42, 405–424.
Williams, D. R., Neighbors, H. W., & Jackson, J. S. (2003). Racial/ethnic discrimination and health: Findings from community studies. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 200–208.
Williams, D. R., & Mohammed, S. A. (2008). Discrimination and racial disparities in health: Evidence and needed research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32, 20–47. doi:10.1007/s10865-008-9185-0.
Acknowledgments
Funding for this study came from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation; The Kresge Foundation, Emerging and Promising Practices; the National Institute for Child and Human Development (1R01 HD070740); and the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH020031). This research was conducted in affiliation with Community Interventions for Health, Oxford Health Alliance, Oxford England. IRB approval was obtained in advance from Yale University, protocol # 0904004988; approvals were also obtained by the New Haven Public Schools, and via parental consent and child assent.
Conflict of interest
There are no known conflicts of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or other funders.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Earnshaw, V.A., Rosenthal, L., Carroll-Scott, A. et al. Teacher involvement as a protective factor from the association between race-based bullying and smoking initiation. Soc Psychol Educ 17, 197–209 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-014-9250-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-014-9250-1