Bullying Victimization and Its Impact on Delinquency: The Case of Asian American Adolescent

Abstract

Despite a great deal of research on Asian American students that mainly highlight the eccentric academic performance, previous research has not deeply shed light on the obstacles that Asian American students face in their life path. One of them that those previous studies pay less attention to is bullying victimization many Asian American students experience due to their racial and ethnic status in the U.S. Using the data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) targeting Asian American students aged between 12 and 18, this research aims to examine (1) how serious it is for Asian American adolescents to commit delinquent activities due to bullying victimization and (2) how much impact each social institution makes on young Asian Americans’ potential criminal activities after being victimized by bullying. The results suggest that bullying experience makes its victims having a higher risk of engaging in criminal activities. Especially, physical bullying makes a considerable impact on the future delinquent behavior of Asian American adolescents that leads to commit various crimes ranged from serious violent crime to nonserious misdemeanor crime. In addition, certain institutional conditions also increase the risk of criminal offense committed after being victimized by bullying, such as a consistent interaction with delinquent peers but decrease the chance of engaging in criminal activities despite having bullying victimization, such as a tight parental supervision.