Bullying is defined as “any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated” (Gladden, Vivolo-Kantor, Hamburger et al., 2013). Common types of bullying include physical, verbal, relational/social, and damage to property, and may also occur through technology (i.e., cyberbullying). In the United States (U.S.), analyses of the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey estimate that 19.5% of U.S. high school students were bullied on school property and 15.7% were bullied electronically or cyberbullied during the past 12 months (Basile, Clayton, DeGue et al., 2020). Similarly, a 2020 probability-based nationally representative study found that 15% of 9–12-year olds in the U.S. have ever been cyberbullied (Patchin & Hinduja, 2020).

Parents play a key role in bullying prevention. Beyond their care, parents can help prevent bullying by providing family environments that support healthy development, to helping strengthen youth skills, and contributing to creating protective community environments (David-Ferdon, Vivolo-Kantor, Dahlberg et al., 2016). Furthermore, positive relationships with parents and other caring adults can protect youth from involvement in crime and violence (Kim, Gilman, Hill et al., 2016; Lösel & Farrington, 2012).

Analyses of the 2009–2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey found that that higher levels of adolescents’ perception of their father’s awareness (i.e., of their friends, money spending habits, afterschool, and other free time activities) was positively associated with lower bullying victimization, particularly among White and Hispanic adolescents. Furthermore, adolescent’s perceptions of their father’s awareness were found to moderate the positive association between bulling victimization and psychosomatic symptoms among Hispanics (Hong, Valido, Espelage et al., 2021). Beyond parental awareness, understanding and perceptions about bullying (Matsunaga, 2009; Sawyer, Mishna, Pepler et al., 2011), the importance of parents’ active involvement in bullying prevention efforts has also been widely noted in the literature (e.g., Fekkes, Pijpers & Verloove-Vanhorick, 2005). In fact, it is imperative to understand parents’ concern about children’s bullying, as well as consider their attitudes and beliefs about it; parents’ views and experiences may differ from that of students (Waasdorp, Pas, O’Brennan et al., 2016) and impact the effectiveness and of bullying prevention efforts (Shea, Wang, Shi et al., 2016).

As a form of youth violence and an adverse childhood experience (ACE; CDC, 2019), bullying can result in trauma, and have immediate and long-term consequences for all involved. Exposure to bullying and cyberbullying has been associated with children experiencing anxiety, depression, paranoid thoughts, and cognitive disorganization (Hamm, Newton, Chisholm, et al., 2015; Singham, Viding, Schoeler et al., 2017). It has also been associated with suicidal ideation and behaviors (Holt, Vivolo-Kantor, Polanin et al., 2015; Takizawa, Maughan & Arseneault, 2014), alcohol dependence (Takizawa et al., 2014), obesity (Takizawa, Danese, Maughan et al., 2015) and other health and socio-economic outcomes (e.g., Brimblecombe, Evans-Lacko, Knapp et al., 2018; Wolke, Copeland, Angold et al., 2013). ACEs are not limited to bullying and other forms of violence. These also include additional types of potentially traumatic events that can undermine children’s sense of safety, stability and bonding, be distressing or emotionally painful, and have lasting effects on their health, behaviors and life potential (CDC, 2019).

Given its unprecedented impact on our society, the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected many children’s exposure to bullying and other ACEs due to its significant social impact and disruptions at multiple levels (ASTHO, 2020). Beyond them or their loved ones getting sick or dying from COVID-19, many children’s daily activities were – and may still be – affected by the pandemic and its mitigating strategies, such as social distancing and stay at home orders (Shen, Yang, Wang et al., 2020) – including moving from in-person to fully virtual learning environments.

Whether it is for virtual learning, entertainment, or socialization, spending more time physically away from school, extended family, friends, congregations, group sports and recreational activities has likely contributed to increases in internet-connected screen time among youth. During the COVID-19 pandemic, increases of 20 to 40% in broadband internet traffic in the U.S. overall were reported (Brake, 2020), yet reliable data on children’s internet-connected screen time during this period is scarce. Across all age groups, video streaming made up much of this traffic. In fact, 7.46 billion hours of livestreaming were reported across live streaming platforms (i.e., Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming) during July-September 2020 – a 91.8% increase compared to the same period in 2019 (3.89 billion hours) (May, 2020).

The internet is accessible to children through multiple devices and platforms (Anderson & Perrin, 2018), yet the internet access and connectivity required for virtual school/learning is not equitably distributed across racial/ethnically diverse households. While the U.S. Census Bureau (2020) estimates that 92.6% of U.S. children under 18 years have a computer at home with a broadband internet subscription, a 2018 Pew survey found that Black (25%) and Hispanic (17%) teens more frequently report lacking reliable computer or internet connection at home, compared to White teens (13%) (Anderson & Perrin, 2018; Pew Research Center, 2018).

While beneficial for continuity of learning and connectedness, increased online activity can also result in increased risk for online harms, like cyberbullying (UNICEF, 2020). Bullying is not limited to school grounds, and cyberbullying can happen in any online community environment – while on social media, playing online video games, or on a virtual learning environment. However, most bullying prevention interventions and research has historically focused on schools (e.g., Fraguas, Díaz-Caneja, Ayora, et al., 2021; Gaffney, Farrington & Ttofi, 2019), with limited to no distinction on whether these refer to physical and/or virtual school grounds.

Some population subgroups are at increased risk for bullying victimization, including sexual minority youth, overweight/obese youth, and youth with disabilities (National Academies, 2016). In recent years, other groups have been identified to be at heightened risk, including those targeted because of their ethnic background or cultural identity (Arens & Visser, 2020; Hoglund & Hosan, 2013; Hong, Peguero, Choi et al., 2014; LaRochette, Murphy & Craig, 2010; McKenney, Pepler, Craig et. al, 2006). In fact, when bullying is based on sex, disability, religion, race or ethnicity, national origin or color, schools are legally obligated to address it as a form of harassment according to the Civil Rights Act (1964).

Notwithstanding, research on bullying’s differential impact on racially and ethnically diverse youth remains limited (National Academies, 2016). A recent multidisciplinary systematic literature review found that studies measuring differences in bullying prevalence across racial and ethnic groups are inconclusive (Xu, Macrynikola, Waseem et al., 2020), frequently due in part to methodological differences across studies and differential impacts of contextual risk factors (Hong, Espelage & Sterzing, 2017; National Academies, 2016; Swearer & Hymel, 2015; Xu et al., 2020). Although youth from different races and ethnicities may similarly experience bullying overall, youth from minority racial/ethnic backgrounds have been found to experience more racist or bias-based bullying due to being perceived as a foreigner or outsider (Atwal & Wang, 2019; Qin, Way & Rana, 2008; Wang, Wang, Zheng et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2020) or being different from the expected or stereotypical norm (Peguero & Williams, 2013; Wang et al., 2016).

It is imperative to understand and address parents’ concerns and needs regarding bullying (Sawyer et al., 2011), for them to be best prepared to engage in its prevention. It is also important to consider contextual factors related to their concern about bullying (e.g., racial/ethnic population group affected by racism, virtual learning environments, inequitable internet access across racial/ethnically diverse households).

The purpose of this study was to estimate U.S. parents and caregivers’ self-reported changes in concern about their children’s involvement in bullying during Fall 2020, compared to perceptions of the prior year via the secondary analyses of data from the 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles and 2020 Estilos online panel surveys. While data suggest that U.S. parents’ concern generally did not change, significant differences were found by the children’s type of school attendance and the parents’ race/ethnicity.

Not physically attending school was associated with parents being less or not concerned about their children being bullied. Analyses of 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles data revealed that significantly more U.S. parents whose children did not physically attend school during Fall 2020 said they were less concerned now about their children being bullied compared to last year – nearly double the proportion of U.S. parents whose children physically attended school during the same period. This is concerning and warrants further insight into U.S. parents’ knowledge and beliefs about bullying, as it may generally suggest that U.S. parents consider bullying to mostly be a physical school-grounds problem and not a public health problem that can happen anywhere. While type of school attendance plays a role in parents’ level of concern about their children being bullied, it is not the only factor determining how concerned their parents are about it.

In most regards, racial/ethnic minority parents in the U.S. – especially, Hispanic parents – were the ones who reported the greatest concern about their children being involved in bullying. Hispanic parents also accounted for the highest proportion of parents who said they were more concerned about their child being bullied now compared to last year, followed by non-Hispanic Black parents. These findings are consistent with prior research that found significant variations in parents concern about their children being bullied or bullying others online by parents’ race/ethnicity – highest for Hispanic and non-Hispanic Asian parents (Boyd & Hargittai, 2013).

2020 Estilos survey data analyses also found not physically attending school was associated with U.S. Hispanic parents being less concerned about their children being bullied. Furthermore, 2020 Estilos data analyses suggest over a third of U.S. Hispanic parents whose children physically attended school were more concerned now about their children being bullied compared to last year. This finding warrants further insight into U.S. Hispanic parents’ knowledge and beliefs about bullying. It may suggest that U.S. Hispanic parents consider bullying to mostly be a physically-at-school problem (i.e., not something that can happen at anywhere – including online) or that they consider their children to be more socially isolated from peers due to the virtual learning environment, or that they think schools are generally not safe. Considering bullying to be mostly a physically-at-school problem could also be related to limited internet connectivity and access to virtual learning environments (e.g., school is only possible in-person). Additional research is needed to understand how pandemic-related factors may have differentially affected parents’ concern about bullying across race/ethnicity.

Two main contextually significant circumstances in the U.S. could have impacted parents’ concern about their child(ren) being bullied or involved in bulling now compared to last year – not being physically at school due to COVID-19 mitigation/prevention efforts, and perceived racism. Not being physically at school was the most frequently reported reason why U.S. parents overall and U.S. Hispanic parents said they are now less concerned about their children being bullied. Surprisingly, spending more time online for learning and/or socialization during this time was not the most frequently reported reason why they are concerned about their children being bullied even though as time online increases, so could children’s risk of being exposed to online harms, like cyberbullying (UNICEF, 2020). This contrasts with media, research, and other reports of increases in cyberbullying among children during the pandemic (e.g., Jain, Gupta, Satam & Panda, 2020; Karmakar & Das, 2020). It also suggests that while we know the effectiveness of bullying prevention strategies employed during in-person learning contexts (Fraguas, Díaz-Caneja, Ayora, et al., 2021; Gaffney, Farrington & Ttofi, 2019), there is a need to assess how novel- and/or evidence-based bullying and other violence prevention strategies have or can be applied to virtual learning contexts (Nikiforos, Tzanavaris & Kermanidis, 2020; Sumner, Ferguson, Bason, et al., 2021).

Analyses of both 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles and 2020 Estilos survey data identified racism as the most frequently reported reason why U.S. parents overall and U.S. Hispanic parents are more concerned about their children being bullied. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study based on nationally representative online panel survey data to identify racism as a reason for U.S. parents’ increased concern about their children being bullied.

At least eight limitations have been identified for this study. First, even though the 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles and 2020 Estilos surveys were designed to produce national estimates of the non-institutionalized U.S. population and U.S. Hispanic population, people who agree to participate in online survey panels could be systematically different from others (e.g. interest and ability to respond to online inquiries). Second, the study relies on the secondary analysis of self-reported survey data, data could be affected by social desirability bias. Third, differences by the age and other characteristics of the children are unknown and could have affected the reasons why parents expressed being more/less/equally concerned about their children being involved in bullying. Given there known differences in bullying by age, gender and other child characteristics, it is possible that parents’ concern could relate to how frequent they consider bullying to be a problem among children that share their child(ren)’s characteristics. Fourth, it is unclear how perceived racism contributed to parents being more concerned about their children being bullied in Fall 2020 compared to the prior year as such concern may stem from children being bullied because of their race/ethnicity, for their beliefs about racism, for standing up against racism, for being perceived as racist, or other reasons. Fifth, the study did not consider differences in parents’ concerns regarding different types of bullying (i.e., physical, verbal, relational/social, damage to property, cyber), nor how parent characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity) could influence concern about different types of bullying. Sixth, there could have been other reasons for parents’ change in concern about bullying that were not reflected in the survey data available for this analysis. Seventh, differences in the proprietary methods of the two online survey panels considered for this secondary data analysis (i.e., KnowledgePanel® and Offerwise’s QueOpinas for the 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles and 2020 Estilos surveys, respectively) could have affected the proportional differences found across U.S. Hispanic parent respondents for both surveys, limiting the researchers’ ability to make statistical comparisons across surveys.

Finally, while it was possible to assess racial/ethnic differences in U.S. parents’ concern about their child(ren) being bullied via 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles, small sample sizes did not allow for reliable estimates of racial/ethnic differences in the reasons why parents’ report being more or less concerned now compared to last year. To account for this, findings from U.S. parents overall and U.S. Hispanic parents from two separate nationally representative online panel surveys with similar methodologies and implementation timeframe (i.e., 2020 Fall ConsumerStyles and 2020 Estilos, respectively) are presented and discussed.

Parents play a key role in strategies to prevent bullying like promoting family environments that support healthy development (David-Ferdon, Vivolo-Kantor, Dahlberg et al., 2016). Therefore, it is imperative to understand what parents think about bullying to inform efforts on how to address it. While parents’ concern about their children being bullied can vary across time and contexts, it is important to remember that not one isolated factor leads to bullying (David-Ferdon et al., 2016). As with other forms of violence, bullying is influenced by the interaction of risk and protective factors at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels of the social ecology. Furthermore, bullying can act as a developmental precursor to other forms of violence and risk behaviors across the lifespan (e.g., sexual violence, dating violence, delinquency, and crime) (Espelage, Ingram, Hong & Merrin, 2021; Loeber & Hay, 1994). Additional research is needed to understand how parents’ perceptions about children’s bullying affect their and their children’s response to it, as well as more in-depth investigation into the role that racial inequities, racism, and cultural differences can play in bullying across different racial/ethnic groups, and how parents can help prevent it.