Bullying Victimization and STIs: Parental Communication and Parental Sexual Communication as Moderators

Abstract

Purpose: Informed by attachment theory, the current study explores whether the association between bullying victimization and STIs acquisition among African American youth is moderated by general parental communication or parental communication about sex. Method: Data were collected from 546 African American adolescents in four neighborhoods in Chicago’s South Side. Univariate analyses, Spearman’s rank-order correlation analyses, and hierarchical logistic regression analyses were conducted. Results: A positive association between bullying victimization and STIs acquisition was found. General parental communication did not moderate the association between bullying victimization and STIs acquisition. However, parental communication about sex did moderate the association between bullying victimization and youth STIs acquisition. Discussion: The study has important implications for developing interventions to address the adverse consequences of bully victimization that emphasize parental communication about sex as a major component.

Co-Word Analysis of First-Authored Publications Written by Top Cited Scholars of Social Work

“…Cluster #2: Bullying Perpetration and Victimization Among Urban Adolescents. Cluster #2 contains 51 key terms indicating that adverse behaviors increase the risk for adolescents to engage in delinquency and risk-taking behavior (Hong et al, 2021a;Hong et al, 2021d;Hong et al, 2019). The most representative publications for this cluster were written by Jun Sung Hong, who mainly collected data from African-American adolescents in Chicago's southside.…”

“…The most representative publications for this cluster were written by Jun Sung Hong, who mainly collected data from African-American adolescents in Chicago's southside. His works focus on the risk and protective factors for bullying perpetration and victimization at multiple levels (Hong et al, 2021b;Hong et al, 2021e;Hong et al, 2020a;Hong et al, 2020b;Hong et al, 2020c) and the factors that buffer the association between victimization and its detrimental impacts (Hong et al, 2021c;Hong et al, 2021d;Hong et al, 2021f;Hong et al, 2021g).…”