Bullying and Victimization among Children Raised by Grandparents

Increasing numbers of school-age children are being raised by their grandparents. Yet, a dearth of research investigates the children in these families. The few studies suggest the children experience higher levels of academic, behavioral, and emotional difficulties than their peers. These behaviors are often associated with involvement in bullying, but no empirical research investigates bullying among children raised by their grandparents. This current study helps to fill the noted lack of research in this area and the gap in the literature by investigating the intersection of these two important phenomena―bullying and children raised by their grandparents. This study uses a nationally representative U.S. sample of 3,347 fifth and sixth grade GrandFamilies Vol. 2(2), 2015 67 participants from the large-scale 2009-2010 “Health Behavior in School-aged Children” survey. The results indicate children raised by their grandparents bully more frequently, but are not victims of bullying more frequently than children living in other head of household family care arrangements. The children and their grandparents, as well as their teachers, will likely benefit from specific prevention and intervention strategies to ameliorate risk of bullying behavior.