My parents empower me against bullying at school: Prosocial behavior and happiness in youths

Abstract

Despite research examining the impact of school bullying experiences, the factors through which school bullying may affect adolescent well-being are not fully understood, and few have focused on these variables. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the role of school bullying and prosocial behavior in the connection between strength-based parenting (SBP) and adolescent subjective well-being (SWB). This study included 597 children ages 11–14 enrolled in a primary school in Türkiye. In addition to indicating the predictive role of SBP on adolescents’ prosocial behavior and well-being, results pointed out that SBP had a significant association with both victimization and perpetration. Additional results indicated that school bullying predicted adolescents’ well-being through prosocial behavior and explained the effect of SBP on SWB and prosocial behavior. SBP was also associated with bullying and well-being through prosocial behavior. Overall, the findings suggest the potential value of developing interventions targeting both parents and adolescents to promote strengths and prosocial behaviors, mitigate the effects of school bullying experiences, and promote SWB.

Keywords

Strength-based parenting prosocial behavior school bullying subjective well-being

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