LAUSR

ABSTRACT Existing research suggests that repeated bullying victimization is associated with lower levels of educational attainment. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether a true causal association exists since previously reported associations may be confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors that affect both repeated bullying victimization and overall educational attainment. The present study aimed to address this issue by analyzing a sample of sibling pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to examine between-family associations (where observable confounds are controlled for) and within-family associations (where observable and unobserved genetic and shared environmental confounds are controlled for). The results revealed that bullying victimization significantly reduced the odds of high school and college graduation when estimating between-family effects, but were rendered nonsignificant once within-family effects were controlled for. Implications of these results for future research on bullying victimization and educational attainment are discussed.