Influence of Positive Childhood Experiences Profiles on Bullying Victimization and Perpetration in Youth: A Latent...

Bullying has enduring negative effects on development in adolescents. While research has focused on reducing risk factors such as adverse childhood experiences for bullying, growing evidence highlights the protective role of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) in fostering resilience and preventing bullying. However, little is known about how combinations of PCEs within the social-ecological context influence bullying. The researchers aimed to (a) identify patterns of PCEs, (b) examine demographic factors associated with these patterns, and (c) investigate how different PCEs patterns relate to bullying victimization and perpetration. Data were drawn from the 2022 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), a nationally representative survey of U.S. children's well-being. The final sample included 17,157 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. This cross-sectional study used a three-step approach for latent class analysis to identify latent PCEs profiles and to examine their demographic predictors and associations with bullying behaviors. The study results identified three PCEs profiles: resilient and supported (RS; high across all indicators), supported and low engagement (SLE; high in most indicators but low in social engagement), and vulnerable and unsupported (VU; low across all indicators). Family- and individual-level factors served as significant predictors of membership in the three PCEs profiles. Both SLE and VU groups reported higher bullying victimization and perpetration than RS, with VU showing the highest levels. The current findings suggest that bullying prevention strategies should extend beyond individual and school-based efforts to include community-level approaches and to coordinate school-family-community partnerships that strengthen protective experiences and address persistent inequities in access to PCEs among adolescents.