(PS9-C73) Characterizing Bullying Involvement Among Anxious Youths: The Roles of Gender and Co-occurring Inattention Symptoms

Bullying involvement is a serious public health problem associated with increased risk of depression, substance use, and suicide attempts among adolescents and young adults. However, little is known about bullying involvement among anxious youth. There is emerging evidence that co-occurring anxiety and inattention increases risk of bullying victimization, but evidence for other forms of bullying involvement is mixed. Finally, gender differences in bullying involvement are well established with males often reporting higher levels of victimization, perpetration, and fighting behavior. This study characterizes bullying involvement among a treatment seeking sample of anxious youth (N = 215). We asked youths (58.9% female) ages 6-18 (M = 11.15 SD = 3.00) to report the severity of their anxiety symptoms using the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) and the frequency of bullying involvement in the past month using the Illinois Bullying Scale (IBS). Parents also completed the ADHD Rating Scale – 5 to assess for symptoms of inattention. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses with bullying victimization, perpetration, and fighting as dependent variables and age, gender, anxiety severity, and inattention symptoms as predictors. We also examined two-way interactions between gender, anxiety severity, and inattention symptoms. There were no significant three-way interactions. Bullying victimization was significantly and positively associated with male gender and higher levels of both anxiety severity and inattention symptoms. There was also a significant interaction between gender and inattention symptoms, such that victimization was higher among male youths with higher levels of inattention symptoms. Bullying perpetration was significantly and positively associated with male gender and higher levels of anxiety severity. Fighting was significantly and positively associated with male gender and inattention symptoms. There was also a significant interaction between gender and inattention symptoms, such that fighting was higher among male youths with higher levels of inattention symptoms. Finally, there was a significant interaction between anxiety severity and inattention symptoms such that fighting behavior was higher among youths with higher levels of anxiety severity and inattention symptoms. This is the first study to characterize bullying involvement (victimization, perpetration, and fighting) among youth with anxiety disorders and examine the roles of gender and co-occurring inattention symptoms on each outcome. Findings demonstrate that there are unique relations among anxiety severity, inattention symptoms, and gender that are associated with different types of bullying involvement. Male youth with high anxiety severity and high levels of inattention symptoms are a particularly vulnerable group for multiple types of bullying involvement.