Bullying victimization is strongly associated with increased psychological distress and suicide in adolescents and poor family functioning. Knowledge of gender differences influencing these factors will improve the prevention of mental problems and suicide in victimized adolescents. A total of 1685 Mexican secondary students, 12–17 years old (m = 13.65), of whom 54% were girls, responded to a standardized scale questionnaire to analyze such differences. Based on the statistical analysis, girls reported significantly lower family functioning and higher psychological distress and suicidal ideation than boys. The cluster analysis classified adolescents into high (5.78%), moderate (24.07%), and no-victimization (69.76%) groups. Boys predominated in the high (3.1%) and moderate-victimization (12.4%) clusters, and girls in the no-victimization group (39.51%). Multivariate statistical analyses found significant differences between the three groups, with the highest means of psychological distress and suicidal ideation and lowest family functioning in the high-victimization group. Only for suicidal ideation, there was an interaction between gender and the degree of victimization, with girls showing a higher increase of suicidal ideation than boys in the same cluster. Conclusions: Early detection and intervention in bullying-victimized adolescents, aiming to decrease psychological distress and suicidal ideation and strengthen family functioning, should consider contextual gender differences for effective prevention of mental health problems and suicide in adolescents.

Comunicación con los padres, malestar psicológico y actitud hacia la autoridad en adolescentes mexicanos: su influencia en la victimización escolar

This transversal study over a random representative sample of 1687 Mexican students attending public and private secondary schools (54% girls, 12–17 years old, M = 13.65. DT = 1.14) aimed to analyze psychosocial differences between victims and non-victims of bullying from the bioecological model. It included individual variables (ontosystem), familiar, community, and scholar factors (microsystem), and gender (macrosystem) to perform a multivariate discriminant analysis and a logistic regression analysis. The discriminant analysis found that psychological distress, offensive communication with mother and father, and a positive attitude toward social norms transgression characterized the high victimization cluster. For the non-victims, the discriminant variables were community implication, positive attitude toward institutional authority, and open communication with the mother. These variables allowed for correctly predicting membership in 76% of the cases. Logistic regression analysis found that psychological distress, offensive communication with the father, and being a boy increased the probability of high victimization, while a positive attitude toward authority, open communication with the mother, and being a girl decrease this probability. These results highlight the importance of open and offensive communication between adolescents and their parents on psychological distress, attitude toward authority, community implication, and bullying victimization.

The aim of the present article is to compare the family functionality, mental health and job insecurity of employees of the hospitality industry in Puerto Vallarta and Bahía de Banderas, in México. This is a quantitative and cross-sectional study. The sample was selected by non-probabilistic sampling for convenience and comprised a total of 914 people, of whom 438 were women (47.92%) and 476 were men (52.08%). The women surveyed reported more somatic symptoms, anxiety, insomnia and social dysfunction compared to men, which allows the conclusion that their mental health is vulnerable; meanwhile, men showed better perception of family functionality, a positive factor that reveals the family as a potential support factor that reduces stress, anxiety and improves men’s mental health. Another result reveals that the gender structure permeates the hotel sector, inequalities in the type of contract and income are corroborated, and the existence of a sexual division of labor to the detriment of women is confirmed, as they are mostly employed in low-skilled jobs that reproduce domestic tasks, particularly those related to cleaning and food service tasks.

The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent job insecurity is related to different factors related with quality of work life. Specifically, it refers to the individual (work–family balance, job satisfaction, labor and professional development, motivation at work, and well-being at work) and work environment (conditions and environment and safety and health at work) dimensions of the construct. The sample group consisted of 842 workers (375 men and 467 women), aged between 18 and 68 years, from Bahía de Banderas, Mexico. Pearson correlation coefficients between the different variables were carried out, as well as MANOVA and ANOVA analyses and a linear regression analysis. The results showed that workers with low job insecurity obtained higher scores in work–family balance, job satisfaction, labor and professional development, motivation at work, well-being at work, conditions and environment, and safety and health at work, in relation to workers with moderate and high insecurity. The regression analysis confirmed that individual factors explain 24% and environmental factors 15% of job insecurity. This article makes an approximation to the phenomenon of job insecurity in the Mexican context, where the relationship of this variable with quality of work life is verified.

El objetivo del presente artículo es examinar la influencia que ejerce la conducta de ciberacoso en el malestar psicológico y la ideación suicida en función del sexo, en el contexto de adolescentes mexicanos que cursan la secundaria. Participaron 1676 adolescentes, 53.9% mujeres y 46.1% varones, con edades que oscilan entre los 12 y 17 años (M = 13.65, DT = 1.14), seleccionados a través de muestreo estratificado por conglomerados. El 90.74% de los adolescentes no son ciberacosadores y solo 9.26% lo son. Se constató que en mujeres y varones prevalecen el malestar psicológico y la ideación suicida cuando se manifiestan conductas de ciberacoso; sin embargo, el grupo de las mujeres presentó medias más altas de ideación suicida y malestar psicológico. Se discute y se concluye que existen diferencias significativas en ideación suicida y malestar psicológico en función del sexo, así como el grado de participación en conductas de ciberacoso.