Bully Victimization, Truancy, and Violent Offending: Evidence From the ASEP Truancy Reduction Experiment

• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1541204020940040
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Bully Victimization, Truancy,

and Violent Offending: Evidence

From the ASEP Truancy

Reduction Experiment

Stephanie M. Cardwell

1,2

, Sarah Bennett

2,3

,

and Lorraine Mazerolle

2,3

Abstract

Research indicates truancy and being bullied (otherwise called bully victimization) are independently

linked to violent offending. We examine the associations between truancy, bully victimization, and

violent offending in a sample of young people who participated in the Ability School Engagement

Program (ASEP) truancy reduction experiment. Pre-intervention, half of the sample reported missing

school because they were being bullied. Experiment and control participants both exhibited significant

reductions in bully victimization and missing school because of bully victimization. Neither groups

exhibited significant reductions in violent offending. Contrasting expectations, participants in the

control group had significantly larger reductions in missing school because of bully victimization. Post-

intervention measures of bully victimization were significantly related to higher odds of violent

offending. Bully victimization is a critical factor inunderstanding the nexus between truancy and violent

offending which, if neglected in an intervention (like ASEP) can lead to backfire effects for young people.

Keywords

truancy, bully victimization, violence, randomized controlled trial

Introduction

Research indicates young people who engage in truancy have a higher risk of experiencing negative

life outcomes relative to those who do not (Farrall et al., 2020; Garry, 1996; Maynard et al., 2012).

Truancy is a notable risk-factor for violence in both adolescence and adulthood (Cardwell et al., 2019;

Farrall et al., 2020; Farrington, 1996; 1998; Garry, 1996; Hansen, 2003; Hawkins et al., 2000 ;

1

Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX, USA

2

School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

3

Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course, St Lucia, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Stephanie M. Cardwell, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio,

TX, USA.

Email: s.cardwell@uq.edu.au

Youth Violence and JuvenileJustice

2021, Vol. 19(1) 5-26

ªThe Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1541204020940040

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Hawkins et al 1998; Loeber & Farrington, 1998; Rocque et al., 2017; Sutphen et al., 2010; White et al.,

2001; Zhang et al., 2007, 2010) and is an indicator of a weak social bond to school (Hirschi, 1969;

Hawkins et al., 2000, p. 4; see also Popp & Peguero, 2012). Time away from school in unstructured

environments present young people with greater opportunities to engage in violence (Cardwell et al.,

2019; Henry et al., 1999; Henry & Huizinga, 2007a; Maimon & Browning, 2010; Monahan et al.,

2014; Osgood et al., 1996). Schools also act as a means to socialize young people into prosocial

behaviors (Payne & Welch, 2013). As such, increasing school attendance and reducing truancy should

theoretically be associated with reduced odds of engaging in violence and violence related behaviors

(see Cardwell et al., 2019).

Effective truancy interventions are those programs that help young people overcome the barriers

that prevent them from regularly attending school by directly targeting the risk factors for truancy

(Dembo & Gulledge, 2009; Mazerolle, Antrobus, Bennett, & Eggins, 2017). One risk factor is being

bullied. Being bullied may weaken a young person’s social bond to school and can lead to school

problems, negative relationships with peers, and reduce opportunities for prosocial development

(Gastic, 2008; Havik et al., 2015; Henry & Huizinga, 2007b; Kearney, 2008; Robinson & Espelage,

2012). Young people who are bullied may engage in truancy due to the anticipated fear of being harmed

at school. They also may be more likely to retaliate with physical violence or engage in violence-related

behaviors (Liang et al., 2007; Nansel et al., 2003; Sourander et al., 2007; van Geel et al., 2014). A

plethora of research indicates that bully victimization is linked to physical fighting and weapon

carrying in adolescence and into adult hood (Holt & Gini, 2017; Liang et al., 20 07; McCuddy &

Esbensen, 2017; Nansel et al., 2003; Pham et al., 2017; Ttofi et al., 2012; Vaughn et al., 2006; van

Geel et al., 2014; Wong & Schonlau, 2013).

While research indicates truancy and bully victimization are linked to one another and indepen-

dently to violence, there is scant evidence addressing the interrelationships between these three

measures. This is problematic because school problems, such as truancy, can be the result of bully

victimization (Espelage, 2015; Gastic, 2008). Building a better understanding of the problems stu-

dents face at school is important for exploring variations in adolescent violent behavior (Savage &

Wozniak, 2016; Savage & Ellis, 2019) and for crafting evidence-based truancy reduction interven-

tions. Research on the interrelationships between these three variables is therefore needed for the

development of interventions that can help prevent violence in young people who engage in truancy

and who also experience bully victimization.

The current study uses data from a truancy reduction program that was designed to help young

people and their parents/guardians overcome the barriers that prevent them from regularly attending

school. The program in question, the Ability School Engagement Program (ASEP), was a randomized

controlled trial that utilized a conference with police, schools, young people who engaged in chronic

truancy, and their parents or guardians as a means to increase school attendance by increasing parental

knowledge of the legal requirements to attend school. Further, the conference included the develop-

ment of an Action Plan that was specifically designed to target the reasons why young people were not

attending school. The current paper focuses on determining whether there is a relationship between

bully victimization and violent offending over time in a sample of young people who engaged in

chronic truancy and whether this relationship varied between those who participated in the ASEP

experiment and those in the control group.

Literature Review

Truancy and Bully Victimization

Truancy, defined as “habitual engagement in unexcused absences from school” (Zhang et al., 2007,

p. 245), is a prevalent issue around the world. Estimates from the United States show the rate of

6Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 19(1)