Socioeconomic Strain, Bullying Perpetration, and Negative Emotions: A Re-specification of GST

Abstract

Traditional bullying and cyberbullying are common problems faced by today’s youth. Research seeking to explain bullying perpetration has often invoked Agnew’s general strain theory (GST). However, research to date has often explored within a given study only a single emotion at a time that can result from strain. Further, prior research has tended to take the causal ordering arguments of GST at face value. The current study seeks to focus on the correlation of strains related to socioeconomics with traditional and cyberbullying perpetration and negative emotions. Utilizing the Add Health data and path modeling in Mplus, results suggest that socioeconomic strain positively correlates with bullying perpetration and recent negative emotions. However, results suggest a potential causal chain that is the opposite of an expectation of GST, with bullying perpetration potentially affecting negative emotions, and not the other way around. Implications of the results for theory and policy are discussed.