(PS5-94) Parent-suggested Child Strategies and Children’s Response to School Bullying

Children often turn to their parents or guardians for support or guidance in times of stress (Power, 2004). Interestingly, little is known about the role of parents in helping children navigate and respond to bullying at school. To inform this gap in the literature and bullying interventions, we developed a measure of parent-suggested child strategies and beliefs about how to respond to school bullying (PSBB). The psychometric properties of this measure were previously evaluated using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) in a sample of 282 young adults (Smeraglia, 2019) who retrospectively reported on their parent’s suggested strategies and beliefs about responding to bullying. This study sought to (1) replicate the factor structure of a parent-report version of the PSBB in a sample of parents of elementary school children and (2) examine whether PSBB subscales were associated with parent-, child-, and teacher-reported peer victimization, bullying perpetration, and fighting within and across time. Participants were 3rd and 4th grade children from a larger project whose parents completed (time 1 n=64) the Parent Strategies and Beliefs about Bullying questionnaire (PSBB) (Smeraglia, 2019). Children, parents, and teachers completed a modified version of the Illinois Bullying Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001) at times 1 and 2. An EFA with an oblique rotation was conducted using PSBB items. Examination of factor loadings, screen plots, and eigenvalues suggested a 6-factor solution best fit the data, replicating the original psychometric evaluation of the measure. PSBB factors were labeled: Aggressive Retaliation, Minimizing, Ignore the Bully, Supporting the Victim, Victim Blaming, and Parent Action. Regression analyses were conducted to examine whether PSBB subscales at time 1 were uniquely associated with self-, teacher-, and parent-reported victimization, bullying, and fighting at time 1. Regression analyses revealed that Aggressive Retaliation was positively associated with parent-reported peer victimization (b = .284, p = .049) and parent-reported child fighting (b = .311, p = .023). Supporting the Victim (b = -.379, p = .021) and Victim Blaming (b = -.381, p = .016) were negatively associated with teacher-reported bullying perpetration. Examined next was whether PSBB subscales at time 1 predicted changes in self-, teacher, and parent-reported victimization, bullying, and fighting at time 2. Parent Action at time 1 was negatively and significantly (b = -.359, p = .006) associated with teacher-reported bullying perpetration at time 2. Aggressive retaliation (b = -.716, p = .006) and Minimizing (b = -.919, p = .001) at time 1 were negatively and significantly associated with parent-reported child victimization at time 2. Supporting the Victim at time 1 emerged as a significant positive predictor (b = .494, p = .038) of parent-reported peer victimization at time 2. The 6-facture structure of the PSBB measure was replicated using a parent-report version of the original PSBB measure. Findings revealed many PSBB subscales were uniquely and differentially associated with peer victimization, bullying perpetration, and fighting within and across time, however, many of the effects were limited to parent-report outcomes.