Parent- and Teen-Reported Concordance of Bullying Involvement in a National Sample of Teenagers.

Abstract

Existing literature has identified associations between both bullying victimization and perpetration and detrimental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors. However, most research among teenagers uses parent-reported data, which may not accurately represent the teenage perspective, and limited work examines concordance between parent- and teenager-reported responses. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and its follow-back survey, NHIS-Teen (N=1,127), we examined concordance between parents and teenagers aged 12-17 years in the United States on bullying involvement (bullying victimization, cyberbullying victimization, bullying perpetration) using several measures (percent agreement, weighted kappa, prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa). Based on previous work, we hypothesized that (1) teenagers would report higher levels of bullying involvement compared to parents, (2) agreement would vary by sociodemographic characteristics, and (3) parent-reported associations between bullying and health would be stronger than teenager-reported. Bivariate logistic regression models determined associations between sociodemographic characteristics and parent-teenager concordance, as well as all three bullying measures and health outcomes. For all measures, prevalence estimates based on teenager report were higher than those based on parent report, with weighted kappa values ranging from fair to moderate. Concordance of bullying involvement varied by race and Hispanic origin. Associations between bullying involvement and health were in the same direction regardless of reporter, but the magnitude of these associations differed. These analyses demonstrate the importance of collecting information from teenagers in addition to their parents; future work may examine the impact of parent-teenager communication on social and emotional health.