American Muslim Youth and Psychosocial Risk for Bullying: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study examined psychosocial correlates of bullying within a sample of American Muslim youth between the ages of 12 and 18 (n = 86; Mage = 13.47, SDage = 1.62; 64% female). Hierarchical regressions were used to examine the associations between atypicality, hyperactivity, somatization, social stress, and bullying while person-based analyses were used to explore the extent to which the coalescence of psychosocial challenges was associated with greater bullying. Overall, the results of both variable- and person-based analyses converged on the same finding—American Muslim youth exhibiting high levels of psychosocial distress across different dimensions also experienced the highest rates of bullying. Recommendations for strengthening school-based anti-bullying approaches to protect Muslim targets are discussed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.