Examining classes of bully perpetration among Latinx high school students and associations with substance use and mental health

Latino(a) (also called “Latinx”) are the fastest growing ethnic population in the U.S.; however, there is a dearth of literature that<br>examines intracultural bullying behaviors and their association with mental health and substance use for this population. The<br>current study uses a person-centered approach to examine bully perpetration among Latinx high school students and association<br>with substance use and mental health. Latent Class Analysis was used to identify classes of bullying perpetration among a sample<br>of Latinx adolescents drawn from 9 Colorado high schools (n = 2929). Age and sex were used as predictors to examine<br>differences between classes. Identified bullying classes were then related to mental health (i.e., depression and suicide ideation)<br>and perceptions of future substance use. The latent class analysis identified five classes that included a high bully perpetration<br>class (4.5%, n = 133), a moderate class (13.8%, n = 405), a class that reported high