Peer teasing experiences of fathers and their children: Intergenerational associations and transmission mechanisms

Being the victim or perpetrator of peer teasing and bullying threatens children’s immediate and long-term well-being. Given that many individual and contextual risk factors for bullying and victimization are transmitted within families, we tested whether parents’ childhood victimization experiences may be directly or indirectly (via poor parenting and poor child adjustment) associated with their children’s increased risk for similar experiences. Generation two (G2) fathers (n = 130) who had been assessed (including by G1 parents) since age 9 years participated in an intergenerational study with their 268 G3 children and the 163 G2 mothers of these children. Peer teasing and bullying ratings were collected from G1 mothers, fathers, and teachers when G2 fathers were ages 9 to 16 years, and from the same three informant types when G3 children were the same ages. Also assessed was G2 fathers’ poor parenting of G3 at ages 3–7 years and G3 poor adjustment (externalizing and internalizing behaviors, deviant peer association, low social competence) and body mass index at ages 7–16 years. Models supported intergenerational continuity in being teased that was partially mediated through G2 fathers’ poor parenting and G3 poor adjustment. A direct intergenerational path in being teased remained significant, and G3 body mass index uniquely predicted being teased. Childhood peer victimization is perpetuated across generations. Prevention aimed at poor parenting, child poor adjustment, and bullying itself may disrupt intergenerational stability in these adverse peer experiences.

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