The Moderating Role of Parenting Styles in Adolescents’ Bullying and Depression

Bullying others among school-aged youth is a worldwide phenomenon that has a variety of adverse outcomes, depression being one of them. The objective of the current study was to examine whether perceived parenting styles moderated the relationship between bullying others and depression among adolescents. It was hypothesized that perceived authoritarian parenting would increase the association between bullying others and depression than non-authoritarian parents. The sample included 116 adolescents aged 12-17, with a mean age of 13.87. The percentage of male participants was 47.41% . We used self-report questionnaires, which measured the different variables in the study (bullying, perceptions of parenting styles, and depression). A positive correlation between bullying others and depressive symptoms was found. Bullying others and perceived authoritarian parenting style were also correlated, and a positive correlation was found between perceived authoritarian parenting style and depressive symptoms. The moderation effect of perceived parenting style on the association between bullying others and depressive symptoms was found significant. Among adolescents perceiving their parents as authoritarian, the association between bullying others and depressive symptoms was found to be stronger. In contrast, among adolescents perceiving their parents as non-authoritarian, the association was low. Results of this study have important clinical implications by understanding the parenting component in the association between bullying others and depression. Our results suggest that the psychological outcomes for bullies may depend, among other things, on their perception of parents' parenting style.