Interparental Conflict and Adolescent Peer Bullying Victimization: A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Model of Depressive Symptoms and Teacher–Student Relationships

Background/Objectives: Interparental conflict increases adolescents’ risk of peer bullying victimization, yet its underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. This study sought to examine whether depressive symptoms mediate the longitudinal relationship between interparental conflict and peer bullying victimization among adolescents, and whether teacher–student relationships moderate this mediating pathway. Methods: A two-wave longitudinal design spaced six months apart was adopted, with 759 Chinese adolescents participating across both waves. Interparental conflict, depressive symptoms, teacher–student relationships, and peer bullying victimization were measured using validated scales. Gender, age, and Wave 1 depressive symptoms and peer bullying victimization were controlled. Data were analyzed using SPSS PROCESS macro (Models 4 and 58). Results: Interparental conflict was positively associated with peer bullying victimization six months later (r = 0.14, p < 0.001). Depressive symptoms significantly mediated this relationship (indirect effect = 0.03, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.05]). Teacher–student relationships significantly moderated both the path from interparental conflict to depressive symptoms (b = −0.08, p < 0.05) and the path from depressive symptoms to peer bullying victimization (b = −0.16, p < 0.01). For adolescents with low teacher–student relationships, interparental conflict was positively associated with depressive symptoms (b = 0.10, p < 0.001), and depressive symptoms were positively associated with peer bullying victimization (b = 0.45, p < 0.001). For those with high teacher–student relationships, interparental conflict was not significantly associated with depressive symptoms (b = 0.01, p > 0.05), while depressive symptoms remained significantly but weakly associated with peer bullying victimization (b = 0.26, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Positive teacher–student relationships buffer the indirect association linking interparental conflict to peer bullying victimization via depressive symptoms. This occurs mainly by attenuating the association between interparental conflict and depressive symptoms to non-significance and lowering the magnitude of the association between depressive symptoms and peer bullying victimization. Higher-quality teacher–student relationships may weaken the correlational pathway connecting family conflict to peer bullying victimization.