Bias in Parental Reports? The Moderating Effect of Parents’ Childhood Peer Victimization on Their Reports of Their Child’s Current Experiences with Bullying and Depression Symptoms

Abstract

Bullying is a prevalent and pervasive issue that can have both immediate and long-term detrimental effects on victims. Researchers have shown that victims of bullying may continue to experience negative outcomes into adulthood, where they may possibly have victimized children of their own. We examined whether parents’ history of peer victimization moderated the relation between their children’s self-reported peer victimization and children’s depression symptoms in a sample of 417 parent-child dyads from the McMaster Teen Study. Possible confounding variables, such as sex of the child, parent’s relationship to the child, parental education, and household income, were controlled for statistically. Consistent with our initial prediction, results indicated that parents’ past victimization moderated the relation between child peer victimization and depression symptoms, but only when parent reports of child depression symptoms were used, not child self-reports. Implications for parental history of bullying as a potential source of bias in reports are discussed.