Neighborhood Resource Deprivation as a Predictor of Bullying Perpetration and Resource-Driven Conduct Symptoms

Abstract

Resource deprivation is linked to systemic factors that disproportionately impact historically marginalized communities, and theoretical work suggests resource deprivation may increase risk for bullying behaviors. Bullying perpetration is an intransigent social problem and an early risk factor that perpetuates the school-to-prison pipeline. We explored how resource deprivation (family and neighborhood level metrics) was associated with early childhood bullying behaviors and clinician-rated symptoms of psychopathology, while accounting for other known risk factors (early life stressors, traumatic events, parental arrest, domestic violence). Participants (306 children, mean age=4.45 years) were enrolled in a longitudinal study (Preschool Depression Study) where demographics, clinician-rated assessments of psychopathology, and parent-reports of social functioning were collected. Measures of bullying behaviors (bullying perpetration, generalized aggression, and victimization) were constructed. A cross-sectional approach was employed and analyses examined the interrelations between race, bullying-related behaviors, resource deprivation, and psychopathology, while accounting for confounding variables, at the baseline assessment timepoint. Our bullying measure showed acceptable model fit (CFI=.956; TLI=.945 RMSEA=.061; SRMR=.052; normed χ2 ratio=2). Neighborhood resource deprivation was more strongly associated with bullying perpetration (r=.324, p<.001), than generalized aggression (r=.236, Williams t(303)=2.11, p=.036), and remained significant when controlling for other known risk factors (parental arrests, domestic violence, stressors, traumas) and demographic factors. Bullying perpetration was linked with racial category, but the relationship was fully mediated by neighborhood resource deprivation. Linear regression including bullying behaviors and symptoms of clinical psychopathology suggest resource deprivation specifically led to increases in bullying perpetration (t=2.831, p=.005) and clinician-rated symptoms of conduct disorder (t=2.827, p=.005), which were attributable to increased rates of resource-driven conduct symptoms (bullies; lies to obtain goods; stolen without confrontation). Resource deprivation is strongly and specifically associated with increases in bullying perpetration. Children growing up in impoverished neighborhoods show significant increases in resource-driven conduct behaviors, yet interventions often target individual level factors. Our results highlight the need to target social inequity to reduce bullying perpetration and suggest interventions targeting neighborhoods should be tested to reduce early youth bullying.