There has been increased recognition of the negative impact of being bullied on youth maladjustment. As such, identifying environmental and psychological factors that moderate the impact of bullying is an important research consideration. In evaluating the effectiveness of intervention, it is imperative that research examine processes that may function to buffer adverse effects. Although social support has been shown to mitigate the impact of trauma on children and adults, few studies have examined the role of social support as a protective factor for victimized youth. The present study investigated perceived social support as a protective factor against the negative impact of bullying on self-esteem and internalizing symptoms. Additionally, specific sources of social support (e.g., parent, peer, adult, relative, sibling) were examined to determine whether unique sources of support differentially moderated negative outcomes. Participants were 284 adolescents between the ages of 11 to 18 (M = 14.93, SD = 2.03), with 43.4% of the sample constituting ethno-racial minorities. After controlling for the effects of gender, hierarchical regression and simple slope analysis revealed that social support significantly moderated symptoms of anxiety, but not depression. Specifically, parental social support was the strongest predictor of anxiety, whereas peer and relative social support were the strongest predictors of depression in bullied youth. Strengths, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04072017-131358 |
| Date | 26 April 2017 |
| Creators | Galsky, Ashley P. |
| Contributors | Kelley, Mary Lou, Renshaw, Tyler, Calamia, Matthew |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04072017-131358/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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