Violence and Victims, Volume 23, Number 6, 2008
Depression as a Mediator Between
Family Factors and Peer-Bullying
Victimization in Latino Adolescents
Brandon A. Yabko, BA
Audrey Hokoda, PhD
Emilio C. Ulloa, PhD
San Diego State University, California
The purpose of this study was to assess the mediating role of depression in three different
relationships: (a) sibling bullying and peer victimization, (b) mothers’ power-assertive
parenting and peer victimization, and (c) fathers’ power-assertive parenting and peer vic-
timization. Results from 242 Latino middle school adolescents from a large southwestern
city bordering Mexico revealed that both boys’ and girls’ peer victimization were related
to familial factors and depression. Regression analyses for boys revealed that depression
mediated three relationships: (a) sibling bullying and peer victimization, (b) mothers’
power-assertive parenting and peer victimization, and (c) fathers’ power-assertive parent-
ing and peer victimization. Depression also mediated the relationship between fathers’
power-assertive parenting and girls’ victimization by peers. The findings support the
development of family-based interventions for peer victimization that include curriculum
addressing depression.
Keywords: sibling bullying; power-assertive parenting; family violence; victim schema;
gender differences
A
“ student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and
over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students” (Olweus,
1993, p. 54). Examples of bullying include physical aggression, teasing, and
exclusion from a social group (Roland, 1998). Sixty-eight percent of 12- to 15-year-old
children rated teasing and bullying as a “big problem” for people their age (Juvonen,
Graham, & Schuster, 2003). The effects of bullying are serious; 160,000 students in the
United States miss school every day because of bullying (Fried & Fried, 1996). Other
negative effects include depressed mood, social anxiety, low self-esteem, health problems
(e.g., headaches, sleeping problems), and retaliatory aggression (Crick & Grotpeter, 1996;
Fried & Fried, 1996; Olweus, 1992; Slee, 1995).
FAMILY FACTORS AND VICTIMIZATION
Increasingly, research has examined family factors that may relate to school bully-
ing victimization, such as sibling bullying (e.g., Duncan, 199