Interparental violence and school bullying among Nigerian adolescents: Moderating role of psychological resilience

Background

Despite the widespread prevalence of bullying, a public health issue, there is limited understanding of factors that propel or reduce bullying behaviors among adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Objective

This research aims to investigate how psychological resilience moderates the association between exposure to interparental violence and bullying among adolescents in secondary schools.

Participants and settings

A sample of 609 (297 males and 312 females) senior secondary school students (Mean Age = 16.44, SD = 1.64, age range = 13–20 years) drawn from four schools in Nsukka, Nigeria.

Methods

Bullying was conceptualized and measured with its two dimensions namely, victimization and perpetration. Data was collected using the Peer Interactions in Primary School Questionnaire, Resilience Evaluation Scale, and Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale, which was analysed using Pearson correlation and Hayes PROCESS Macro.

Results

Results indicated that interparental violence was positively associated with victimization (B = 0.07, p < 0.001) and perpetration (B = 0.07, p < 0.001), while psychological resilience was positively associated with perpetration (B = 0.09, p < 0.05) but not victimization (B = 0.02). Additionally, results showed that psychological resilience moderated the association of interparental violence with victimization (B = 0.01, p < 0.01) and perpetration (B = 0.01, p < 0.001) such that the positive association between interparental violence, victimization, and perpetration became stronger as levels of psychological resilience increased.

Conclusion

The study concludes that exposure to interparental violence is a potentially strong risk factor for bullying and should be taken into consideration by school psychologists and other stakeholders to reduce bullying behaviors among students.