TY - JOUR
T1 - Building A Comprehensive, Longitudinal Dataset to Advance Research on the Efficacy of State-Level Anti-bullying Legislation
T2 - 1999 to 2017
AU - Ramirez, Marizen R.
AU - Ryan, Andrew
AU - Lymn, Katherine
AU - Burris, Scott
AU - Cook, Amy
AU - Cloud, Lindsay K.
AU - Hatzenbuehler, Mark L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Bullying is one of the most common forms of youth violence and is associated with myriad adverse consequences over the life course. There has been increasing interest in examining whether anti-bullying legislation is effective in preventing bullying victimization and its negative effects. However, a lack of data structures that comprehensively and longitudinally assess anti-bullying legislation and its provisions has hampered this effort. We provide 18 years of data (1999–2017) on anti-bullying legislation and amendments across 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, which we are making publicly available at LawAtlas.org. This article describes how the legal content analysis was conducted, provides information on the reliability of the coding, and details provisions of the legislation that were coded, such as funding provisions and enumerated groups (a total of 122 individual codes are provided). Over 90% of states had at least one amendment to their legislation during this 18-year period (range: 0–22; Mean = 6.1), highlighting both the evolving content of anti-bullying statutes and the importance of tracking these changes with longitudinal data. Additionally, we offer illustrative examples of the kinds of research questions that might be pursued with these new data. For instance, using survival analyses, we show that a variety of state characteristics (e.g., political leaning of state legislatures) predict time to adoption of key provisions of anti-bullying legislation (e.g., the comprehensiveness of legal provisions). Finally, we end with a discussion of how the dataset might be used in future research on the efficacy of anti-bullying legislation.
AB - Bullying is one of the most common forms of youth violence and is associated with myriad adverse consequences over the life course. There has been increasing interest in examining whether anti-bullying legislation is effective in preventing bullying victimization and its negative effects. However, a lack of data structures that comprehensively and longitudinally assess anti-bullying legislation and its provisions has hampered this effort. We provide 18 years of data (1999–2017) on anti-bullying legislation and amendments across 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, which we are making publicly available at LawAtlas.org. This article describes how the legal content analysis was conducted, provides information on the reliability of the coding, and details provisions of the legislation that were coded, such as funding provisions and enumerated groups (a total of 122 individual codes are provided). Over 90% of states had at least one amendment to their legislation during this 18-year period (range: 0–22; Mean = 6.1), highlighting both the evolving content of anti-bullying statutes and the importance of tracking these changes with longitudinal data. Additionally, we offer illustrative examples of the kinds of research questions that might be pursued with these new data. For instance, using survival analyses, we show that a variety of state characteristics (e.g., political leaning of state legislatures) predict time to adoption of key provisions of anti-bullying legislation (e.g., the comprehensiveness of legal provisions). Finally, we end with a discussion of how the dataset might be used in future research on the efficacy of anti-bullying legislation.
KW - anti-bullying legislation
KW - bullying victimization
KW - longitudinal
KW - schools
KW - youth violence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180906613&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85180906613&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/15248380231219256
DO - 10.1177/15248380231219256
M3 - Review article
C2 - 38158800
AN - SCOPUS:85180906613
SN - 1524-8380
JO - Trauma, Violence, and Abuse
JF - Trauma, Violence, and Abuse
ER -