Does Being Bullied Predict Adolescent Psychological Problems? The Moderating Role of Parental Responses to Adolescents’ Negative Emotions

Exposure to peer victimization is often predictive of increased psychosocial problems in adolescents, but parenting has been identified as a critical mitigating factor of these negative effects. Among parenting behaviors, emotion socialization plays a vital role in adolescents’ emotional and social development. However, its specific role in the context of peer victimization and adolescent adjustment is unclear. To address this, this study examined whether adolescent-perceived parental responses to children’s negative emotions moderate the longitudinal predictive effects of bullying victimization on adolescent psychosocial problems over eight months. The study included 1007 Chinese adolescents with a mean age of 14.75 years (SD = 0.60). Female participants accounted for 53.5% of the sample. The results showed that mothers were perceived to engage more often than fathers in supportive responses, emotion minimization, and didactic talk. Being bullied positively predicted adolescents’ internalizing problems when they perceived maternal support as excessively high, but it negatively predicted adolescents’ externalizing problems when they perceived maternal support as very low. No significant relationship was found between being bullied and adolescents’ problems when maternal support was perceived as moderate. These findings suggest that maternal supportive responses to adolescents’ negative emotions moderate the association between bullying victimization and adolescent psychosocial problems and should be considered in prevention and intervention efforts.