Are Children of Welfare Recipients at a Heightened Risk of Bullying and Peer Victimization?
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Are Children of Welfare Recipients at a Heightened Risk of Bullying and Peer Victimization? Jun Sung Hong1 · Jungtae Choi2 · Dorothy L. Espelage3 · Chi‑Fang Wu4 · Lena Boraggina‑Ballard1 · Benjamin W. Fisher5 Accepted: 29 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Background Children who come from families on welfare or government assistance might be at risk for bullying involvement. As research has shown, children living in poverty and experiencing family economic hardship are significantly likely to be involved in bullying in school. Objective This study investigates whether welfare assistance is associated with children’s bullying victimization and perpetration, controlling for the covariates including mother (educational level, marital status, employment status, perceived parenting) and child (sex, age, race/ethnicity) characteristics. The study also explores whether various kinds of welfare assistance programs, such as Medicaid, Cash Assistance, SNAP, free/reduced breakfasts or lunches at school and the WIC program are independently associated with children’s bullying victimization and perpetration, controlling for the covariates. Method Participants were 15,010 caregivers of children, ages 6–11 years, who completed the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). Results Results suggest that children receiving welfare assistance were more likely to be victims and perpetrators of bullying than children not on assistance. All of the welfare assistance variables were associated with increased odds of bullying perpetration, and three out of five welfare assistance programs—Medicaid, SNAP, and free/reduced breakfasts or lunches at school were statistically significantly associated with increased odds of bullying victimization. Conclusion Children in families receiving welfare assistance appear to be at an increased risk of being both victims and perpetrators of bullying, which suggests a need for bullying programming for this population. Keywords Bullying · Children · Economic hardship · Poverty · Public assistance · Welfare
Dorothy L. Espelage and Chi-Fang Wu contributed equally to the study and are co-third authors of the article. * Jun Sung Hong [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Child & Youth Care Forum
Introduction In the United States, about 15 million children (21% of all children) live in households with incomes below the federal poverty threshold (National Center for Children in Poverty 2019). Welfare assistance programs for low-income families include Temporary Aid for Needy Families (Cash Assistance); housing assistance; Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); Medicaid (health insurance to low-income families); and Supplemental Security Income (uniform Cash Assistance to elderly, blind, and individuals with special health needs; Currie 1998). Although the U.S. public generally supp
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