Parents Don’t (Always) Know Their Children Have Been Bullied: Child-Parent Discrepancy on Bullying and Family-Level Profile of Communication Standards

Discrepancy between bullied victims’ experience and their parents’ understanding indicates underutilization of family support system, and thus presents an important risk factor. An online survey (N = 300 child-father-mother triads) was conducted to establish a framework that helps distinguish families with different child-parent discrepancy levels. This family-level variability was modeled by profiling child-father-mother triad’s family communication standard (FCS) orientations. This “FCS profile” indeed distinguished families with different levels of discrepancies. Further, SEM analyses revealed that those discrepancies presented a distinct risk factor vis-à-vis effects of bullying reports per se. Finally, FCS profile had an indirect association with victims’ well-being via mediation by child-parent discrepancy. These findings are discussed with regard to the role of family communication in bullied individuals’ coping processes.