Parental Marital Quality and School Bullying Victimization: A Moderated Mediation Model of Parent-Child Attachment...

Background/Objectives: School bullying is a significant issue that negatively impacts children's well-being, emphasizing the need to identify family-related factors contributing to bullying victimization. This study explored the potential link between parental marital quality and school bullying victimization by employing a moderated mediation model. Methods: Parent-child attachment, measured separately as father-child and mother-child attachment, was tested as a mediator, with child gender included as a moderator. Data were collected from both children and their mothers, comprising 358 mother-child pairs recruited from three primary schools in suburban Beijing, China. Results: Results revealed that greater parental marital quality was associated with a lower risk of bullying victimization, with father-child attachment mediating this relationship. Furthermore, child gender moderated the mediating effect of father-child attachment, such that the indirect pathway from parental marital quality to bullying victimization through father-child attachment was statistically significant for girls but not for boys. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of father-child attachment in preventing bullying victimization and suggest that gender-sensitive implications may be necessary.