Family economic hardship and adolescents’ bullying perpetration/victimization in online and offline context: A latent profile analysis

Family economic hardship is a significant risk factor for adolescent development. However, few studies examine its impacts on both bullying perpetration and victimization across online and offline contexts, and previous studies often overlook the overlap between different patterns of bullying involvement. This study aims to assess the impact of family economic hardship on traditional bullying perpetration, traditional victimization, cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization among Chinese adolescents, explore the mediating factors, analyze gender and grade differences, and identify distinct bullying involvement profiles. This study used a cross-sectional design, and the sample comprised 13,873 adolescents (49.85% male) from senior and junior high schools in Zhejiang Province, China. This study employed a multi-faceted analytical approach, including primary analyses, mediation analysis, heterogeneity analysis, latent profile analysis and the multinomial logistic regression. The findings indicate that family economic hardship is associated with increased bullying involvement, mediated by family affective response and relative deprivation, with a more pronounced effect on victimization and offline contexts. Latent profile analysis delineates five distinct groups (low-risk 85.07%, medium-risk 5.61%, high-risk 3.81%, high online-risk 3.64%, high offline-risk 1.92%), with family economic hardship predicting membership in high-risk groups. A positive family environment and reduced relative deprivation lower the likelihood of being in low-risk groups, while male gender and senior-high school status are associated with higher-risk group membership. The study integrates the findings into a comprehensive model, offering insights for interventions and policy development.