The Relationship Among Parental Involvement, Social-Emotional Competency, and Adolescent Victimization

Bullying victimization significantly affects the physical and mental health of adolescents and has garnered increasing social attention. This study, grounded in the Developmental Assets Framework, employed variable- and individual-centered approaches to construct a structural equation model exploring the relations among parental involvement, social-emotional competence, and adolescent victimization, with consideration of gender differences. A sample of 1,613 adolescents in China was assessed using the Parental Involvement Scale for secondary school students, the Delaware Social-Emotional Competency Scale, and the Olweus Children's Bullying/Victim Questionnaire. Latent profile analysis categorized parental involvement into three levels: low, medium, and high. After controlling for family socioeconomic status, results indicated that parental involvement was weakly and negatively associated with victimization, whereas social-emotional competence showed a more consistent association with lower victimization. Structural equation modeling further suggested that the association between parental involvement and victimization was primarily indirect and related to social-emotional competence. Gender comparisons revealed only small differences in these associations, which should be interpreted with caution. This study suggested that family-related factors may be better understood as distal correlates of adolescent victimization, highlighting the importance of social-emotional competence and peer contexts in prevention efforts.