Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-9-2021
Abstract
A growing body of research documents that bullying victimization is associated with delinquent behavior. There is an increasing need to better illuminate the factors that might moderate this relationship. This study examined whether the motivation to move out of low-resourced neighborhoods and sexual orientation/gender identity moderated the relationship between bullying victimization and delinquent behavior among a sample of 450 heterosexual and 91 non-heterosexual/cisgender African American youths. Measures considered were bullying victimization, delinquent behavior, sexual orientation/gender identity, motivation to move out, and family demographics. Sexual orientation/gender identity was not associated with youth delinquent behavior after controlling for covariates. Being motivated to move out moderated the association between bullying victimization and delinquent behavior. Sexual orientation/gender identity and being motivated to move out of low-resourced communities jointly contributed to the moderating effect between bullying victimization and delinquent behavior. For non-heterosexual/cisgender youth, bullying victimization is correlated with increased delinquent behavior for those with low motivation to move out of their communities compared with those with an average or higher level of motivation to stay. However, such a moderating effect was not shown for heterosexual youth.
Keywords
African American youth, bullying victimization, delinquent behavior, gender identity, hopefulness, sexual orientation
Publication Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume
18
Issue
24
Rights
© 2021 by the authors.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Hong, J.S.; Zhang, S.; Garthe, R.C.; Hicks, M.R.; deLara, E.W.; Voisin, D.R. Motivation to Move Out of the Community as a Moderator of Bullying Victimization and Delinquent Behavior: Comparing Non-Heterosexual/Cisgender and Heterosexual African American Adolescents in Chicago’s Southside. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 12998. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182412998