Asian American Journal of Psychology
Volume 7, Issue 2, 2016, Pages 83-96

Parents and teachers' perspectives on school bullying among elementary school-aged asian and latino immigrant children (Review)

Shea M.* , Wang C. , Shi W. , Gonzalez V. , Espelage D.
  • a Department of Psychology, California State University, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032, United States
  • b Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, University of Maryland, College Park, United States
  • c Department of Psychology, California State University, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032, United States
  • d PsyD Program in Marriage and Family, Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles Dorothy Espelage, United States
  • e Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States

Abstract

Concerted efforts have been made to understand school bullying in the last decade; however, few studies have focused on Asian and Latino students. Recent research has proposed a social-ecological framework to study the influence of broader contexts-such as familial, school, and acculturation-on children's bullying involvement (e.g., Hong &Espelage, 2012). The aim of this study was to qualitatively examine the perspectives of teachers and parents of elementary school-aged Asian and Latino immigrant children on school bullying. Five focus groups with a total of 23 participants (Asian parents = 9; Latino/a parents = 6; teachers = 8) were conducted at an elementary school in Southern California. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory methodology (Corbin &Strauss, 2008). Four themes emerged from the data: (a) parents' and teachers' beliefs of what constitute school bullying and its contributing factors, (b) the pervasiveness and impact of school bullying, (c) parenting challenges in the acculturative context, and (d) parents and teachers' utilization of intervention strategies. Although the findings suggest that parents and teachers possess a rather nuanced understanding of bullying and its detrimental impact, they also underscore the challenges faced by low-income immigrant families and the teachers in fostering home-school collaboration. Commonalities and differences in the experiences between Asian and Latino groups are highlighted, and suggestions for working with teachers and immigrant parents to prevent school bullying are discussed. Drawing from the study themes, a theoretical model that highlights the interrelationships of the themes is proposed for future research investigation. © 2016 American Psychological Association.

Author Keywords

School bullying qualitative research parents teachers Asian and Latino immigrants

Index Keywords

California primary school information processing teacher immigrant drawing Asian clinical article lowest income group child parent relation theoretical model qualitative research bullying human grounded theory Hispanic Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84969785542&doi=10.1037%2faap0000047&partnerID=40&md5=8020a905a432d343ec8ffc6f047a4274
DOI: 10.1037/aap0000047
ISSN: 19481985
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English