Browsing by Author "Laine, Salla"

Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the connection between parental alcohol use and school bullying among eighth and ninth graders in School health survey from 2019. The research problem was to find out if parental alcohol use could be linked to being a bully at school when other risk factors of being a bully have been observed as well. Previous studies have found that parental alcohol use and being a bully at school may be linked though there were not numerous amount of previous studies. Parental alcohol use affects the lives of many children and adolescents in Finland which makes this as an important topic to explore. This research raises the experiences of adolescents whose parents are consuming alcohol and develops ways to recognize children and adolescents who have a higher risk to become a bully as well as expand the understanding of bullying and it`s causes. Methods. The data used in this study consists of a Finnish school wellbeing survey that was conducted in 2019. The survey is a nation-wide study with target group being one cohort of eighth and ninth grade primary school pupils. The survey received a total of 87 215 responses of which 52 821 fulfilled the criteria of the employed analysis methods. The data was analysed through a linear regression using a forced entry method. There were 15 additional variables used in addition to parental alcohol use. Those variables were formed based on previous studies. Linear regression was used to examine the connection between parental alcohol use and being a bully when other risk factors were observed as well. Results and conclusions. In contrast to previous research, parental alcohol use and other risk factors of this study did predict being a bully at school. But even though the linear regression model itself was statistically significant, it was capable to explain only 16.5 percent of the total variation in being a bully variable. There could be a potential link between parental alcohol use and being a bully at school but the link seemed to be weak according to this study.