Parental Behavioral Control and Bullying and Victimization of Rural Adolescents in China: The Roles of Deviant Peer Affiliation and Gender

Bullying and victimization (BAV) have been widely studied, but the potential mechanism of parental behavioral control (PBC) on bullying and victimization in Chinese adolescents has not been explored. This study aimed to examine a moderated mediation model for the association between PBC and BAV mediated by deviant peer affiliation (DPA) and moderated by gender. A total of 3779 adolescents (N(boy) = 1679, M(age) = 14.98 years, SD = 0.95) from southwest China has completed the Peer Bullying, Peer Victimization, PBC, and DPA questionnaires. The results indicated that: (1) PBC significantly predicted adolescents’ BAV (−12%); (2) DPA mediated the effect of PBC on BAV only for those adolescents who were both bullies and victims; (3) the mediating role of DPA was moderated by gender only in the relationship between PBC and victimization, with a relatively stronger effect in girls than in boys.