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A Review of Research on School Bullying Among African American Youth: An Ecological Systems Analysis

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Abstract

School bullying and peer victimization are social problems that affect African American youth across various environmental contexts. Regrettably, many of the empirical research on bullying and peer victimization among African American youth has examined individual and direct level influences in silos rather than a constellation of factors occurring in multiple settings, such as home, school, and neighborhood. As a holistic model, the social–ecological framework provides a context with which to situate and interpret findings and draw implications from a broader psychosocial framework, which can be applicable across various systems. We utilize Bronfenbrenner’s (American Psychologist 32:513–531, 1977) social–ecological framework as a springboard for investigating the accumulation of risk contributors and the presences of protective factors in relation to school bullying and peer victimization of African American youth. More specifically, we examine the risk and protective factors occurring in the micro- (i.e., parents, peers, school, and community), exo- (i.e., parental stress), and macrosystem levels (i.e., hypermasculinity, and gender role beliefs and stereotypes). We then discuss implications for research and school-based practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Desmond Upton Patton & Abigail B. Williams

  2. School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Jun Sung Hong

  3. Office of the Chancellor, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Paula Allen-Meares

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  1. Desmond Upton Patton
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  2. Jun Sung Hong
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  3. Abigail B. Williams
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  4. Paula Allen-Meares
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Correspondence to Desmond Upton Patton.

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Patton, D.U., Hong, J.S., Williams, A.B. et al. A Review of Research on School Bullying Among African American Youth: An Ecological Systems Analysis. Educ Psychol Rev 25, 245–260 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-013-9221-7

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