The Association between Neighborhood Factors and Bullying among Adolescents with Asthma

Introduction: Neighborhood factors may be associated with bully victimization, a serious health concern for adolescents with asthma. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine associations between neighborhood factors and past year bullying in adolescents with asthma as reported by adult household respondents. Methods: Using data from the adolescent 2019 National Survey of Children’s Health, we included in our analyses responses from adults of adolescents with asthma who replied to whether or not the adolescent was bullied over the past year and to the neighborhood factors of interest. These adults included 473 adult respondents of adolescent females with asthma and 551 adult respondents of adolescent males with asthma. Neighborhood variables included whether the adolescent’s neighborhood had sidewalks or walking paths, a park or playground, a recreation center or a boys’ or girls’ club, and vandalism exposure. The complex samples module in IBM SPSS 27 with equal probability sampling without replacement was used to conduct the analyses. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were also used. Results: Statistically significant differences were found in the proportion of adolescent females with asthma ever bullied compared to the proportion never bullied who had access to a park or playground (70.0% vs. 83.7%, respectively; p=.038) and were exposed to neighborhood vandalism (2.8% vs. 10.8%, respectively; p=.028). A significantly smaller proportion of adolescent males with asthma ever bullied than the proportion never bullied were exposed to neighborhood vandalism (4.9% vs. 14%, respectively; p=.032). Conclusion: It is important to examine the influence of neighborhood factors further to better understand their association with bully victimization in adolescents with asthma.