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Existing theories and empirical studies have evidenced the association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration. However, it is still unclear what factors mitigate or alter this risk linkage between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration to reduce bullying incidents. Guided by the social-ecological theory, this study used a longitudinal design to examine the moderating role of school climate in the association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration at both the within-person and between-person levels among Chinese adolescents across a 1-year period. Participants included 2,997 Chinese adolescents ( Mage = 14.9, 49.7% male) from 5 secondary schools. Results suggested that students who experienced high levels of bullying victimization were also involved in high levels of bullying perpetration over time (i.e., the positive within-person effect of bullying victimization on bullying perpetration). Results also showed that the between-person level of perceived school climate interacted with the within-person level of bullying victimization to predict the within-person level of bullying perpetration (i.e., cross-level effects). More specifically, the magnitude of the positive association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration at the within-person level was mitigated among students with higher perceptions of school climate at the between-person level. Findings of the study highlighted the causal effect of bullying victimization on bullying perpetration and the buffering role of perceived school climate in the longitudinal association between bullying victimization and perpetration, which was consistent with the risk-buffering model but not the healthy context paradox hypothesis. Furthermore, the findings provided implications for bullying prevention and intervention services by using multitiered systems of support in bullying prevention efforts and highlights the need for promoting positive school climate.

Child maltreatment has a critical impact on the lives of children. Maladaptive parenting may interrupt the process of establishing healthy peer relationships as the quality of parent-child bonds determines positive or negative child outcomes. Although maladaptive parenting is known as a risk factor for predicting bullying perpetration and victimization, there has been little consideration of its developmental influences. We aimed to investigate the association between trajectories of parental maltreatment and peer bullying experiences from childhood to adolescence in Korea. Four waves of the nationally-representative Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey were used to assess parental abuse and neglect from grades four to seven (N = 2179; age range from 10–11 to 13–14). Latent class growth analysis identified trajectories of maltreatment, and logistic regression highlighted the relationship between derived trajectories and bullying engagement. Three latent groups of maltreatment trajectories were found and were named as low (59.26%), high neglect (30.02%), and high abuse (10.72%). Results from the logistic regression indicated that the high abuse trajectory was more strongly associated with higher rates of both bullying perpetration and victimization than the low trajectory. This study has implications for identifying long-term influences of abusive parenting in contrast to neglectful parenting over the course of childhood for engagement in adolescent bullying behavior. Findings may provide insights for prevention, intervention, and school bullying policies regarding developmental trajectories of maladaptive parenting.

The aim of the current study was to examine whether collective moral disengagement in the classroom was associated with bullying perpetration and victimisation. One-thousand-and-fifty-four students...

Purpose: The current study was designed to extend the results of an earlier study in which parental support was found to moderate the prospective relationship between bullying perpetration and subs...

The present study examined the direct and indirect effects (via moral disengagement) of violent video game playing on bullying/cyberbullying perpetration in early adolescents. The study included 479 middle school students aged 11–14 years (M = 13.06, SD = .76). Of the participants, 216 (45.1%) were girls and 263 (54.9%) were boys. The measures included violent video game playing, moral disengagement, bullying, and cyberbullying perpetration scales. The significance of indirect effects was estimated using 5000 bootstrap samples and 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals. The findings showed that violent video game playing was directly and positively associated with early adolescents’ bullying perpetration. Also, violent video game playing was indirectly associated with early adolescents’ bullying and cyberbullying perpetration through moral disengagement. Finally, moral disengagement both predicted bullying and cyberbullying perpetration. Findings provided evidence for the role of violent video game playing and moral disengagement for early adolescents’ bullying and cyberbullying perpetration. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed and future directions are provided.

Some school policies are designed to promote a positive school climate, but little is known about their effectiveness. This study aims at describing the relation among the quality of school climate policy documents, social and emotional competencies, bullying and cyberbullying in students. This ex-post-facto cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted using a survey of a representative sample of 2139 adolescents. School climate policy documents varied greatly in the quantity and quality of accomplishment in each criterion. According to the evidence from this study, promoting a positive school climate from the school climate policy document is worthy, as bullying perpetration could be reduced. The findings of this study have implications for school policy and educational reforms.

Objectives: Bullying among adolescents is one of the important but neglected health concerns, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and correlates of bullying among Indian adolescents. Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: The prevalence of self-reported involvement in any kind of bullying was assessed among sixth to tenth class students (n = 667, mean age 13 years), across government (n = 359) and private (n = 308) schools using Olweus Bully-Victim Questionnaire in Chandigarh, a North Indian union territory. Self-esteem and emotional and behavioral difficulties of the participants were measured by using standard Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, respectively. Multinomial logistic regression was done to determine the predictors of bullying. Results: Prevalence of any kind of bullying was 25.6% (16% victimization, 5.2% perpetration, and 4.3% being bully-victim). Verbal bullying was the most common (55.1%), followed by physical (32.7%) and relational (25.2%) bullying. The prevalence of cyberbullying was 2.7%. Around 44% of students reported that adults in school never did anything to stop bullying. Bully-victims had the highest mean difficulty score (16.07). Significant predictors of bullying were being male (odds ratio [OR] = 2.5 [1.5–4.2], P < 0.001); studying in government school (OR = 0.63 [0.41–0.99], P = 0.048); having abnormal emotions (OR = 2.24 [1.1–4.7], P = 0.035); and poor peer relations (OR = 2.77 [1.44–5.35], P = 0.002). Conclusions: One in four adolescents experience some form of bullying in schools in a North Indian city. Bullying perpetration and victimization is associated with gender, type of school, and abnormal difficulties (emotional and behavioral problems).

Although parental monitoring often reduces youth risk behaviors, some research on bullying perpetration has found that parental monitoring deters bullying while other research has found a null effect or a positive effect. We investigated the bidirectional relationships of bullying perpetration and parental monitoring from age 11 to 18 years, leveraging data from four middle and six high schools in the Midwest ( N = 3,549 students). We observed within-student stability in bullying perpetration and parental monitoring across time. Bullying perpetration had a prospective, negative association with parental monitoring from ages 11 to 12. However, parental monitoring predicted lower levels of bullying perpetration from ages 13 to 14. In early adolescence, youth who bully may be emboldened by a lack of perceived parental monitoring. Parental monitoring through establishment of house rules and awareness of risk during early to middle adolescence may deter bullying perpetration.

The purpose of the study is to explore whether the association between types of parenting styles and bullying and victimization are similar across White American, U.S.-born Asian, and foreign-born Asian adolescents. Authoritative parenting, which is characterized as being supportive and showing acceptance, is positively related to psychological well-being among White American youth. However, due to different cultural norms in parenting style, Asian parents whose parenting style appears to be controlling and lacking in warmth might differentially affect their children’s behavior and socialization in school. Sample was drawn from the 2009–2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) U.S. study. The most recent data were collected in the United States from 2009 to 2010. HBSC consisted of adolescents, aged 11, 13, and 15 years. The sample for the present study includes 1438 adolescents who identified as White American, U.S.-born Asian, or foreign-born Asian. Univariate analyses, bivariate analyses, and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. The regression analysis was conducted separately for bullying victimization and perpetration across foreign-born Asians, U.S.-born Asians, and White Americans. Among foreign-born Asians, mother’s non-involvement was positively associated with bullying victimization. Among U.S.-born Asians, father’s non-involvement was found to be positively associated with bullying victimization, and authoritarian parenting was positively associated with perpetration. Among White Americans, both authoritative parenting and mother’s non-involvement were positively related to bullying perpetration. This study highlights the importance of understanding the association between types of parenting styles and adolescent bullying and victimization.

The purpose of this study was to explore the inter-relationships among students’ self-esteem, bullying victimization/perpetration behaviours, and perceived parental support, with a focus on how self-esteem mediates the association of parental support and bullying behaviours and how bullying mediates the association of parental support and self-esteem. We employed structural equation modelling to analyse the secondary data collected in “Young Minds Matter: The Second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing” funded by the Australian Government Department of Health. Analyses were performed on 431 adolescent students selected from 2967 adolescents aged 11-17 years. Our findings revealed that parental support has a direct positive association with self-esteem and a direct negative association with bullying behaviours. This study highlights the importance of parental support in both lowering bullying perpetration/victimization and enhancing student’s self-esteem. Findings of this study could improve anti-bullying programs.

In the last few decades, bullying has been considered a widespread problem for schools around the world. However, there are few longitudinal studies analyzing the evolution of bullying victimization and perpetration behaviors during middle school transition.In the present study we have employed a longitudinal approach, with assessment throughout two consecutive school years to analyze if middle school transition to analyze the influence that school location and two dimensions of school climate (student-student relationships and teacher-student relationships) have upon bullying victimization and perpetration behaviors during middle school location The study also analyzed if there are gender differences in the these relationships.Results indicate that, during middle school transition, victimization behaviors remained constant, whereas bullying perpetration behavior decreased significantly. However, for boys victimization behaviors increased, whereas there were no diferences between genders in the evolution of bullying perpetration behaviors. Also, students that reported more positive perceptions of teacher-student relationships displayed a larger decrease in bullying victimization and perpetration behaviors. Additionally,students who transited to rural middleschoolsreported a more negative trajectory in bullying victimization and perpetration behaviors than students that went to urban middle schools.Thus, it is possible to conclude that middle schools’ characteristics influence the evolution of bullying victimization and perpetration behaviors during middle school transition, which highlights the need for schools to invest in the promotion of a positive school climate.

There is a paucity of research on developmental trajectories of bias-based aggression. We examined homophobic bullying victimization trajectories among high school students (N = 3,064; M age = 13.67; Girls = 50.2%) and how these developmental pathways vary as a function of factors like homophobic bullying perpetration, sex assigned at birth, and sexuality. Using data from a 3-wave longitudinal investigation over a 2-year period, we utilized latent growth mixture modeling to explore the aforementioned trajectories. Findings suggested that there were three distinct classes characterized by high initial rates and declines over time, low initial rates, and increases over time, and low, stable, rate across time. Furthermore, results indicated that homophobic bullying perpetration, sex assigned at birth, and sexuality all predicted class membership.

We assessed whether the level of time-pressure reported by a school’s teachers is predictive of student bullying perpetration. We combined data from two surveys conducted in 129 schools in 2016: th...

This study tested two theories designed to explain the bullying perpetration–victimization relationship. Peer delinquency was hypothesized to mediate the pathway from bullying perpetration to victimization, in line with opportunity, lifestyle, and routine activities theories, and anger was held to mediate the pathway from bullying victimization to perpetration as set forth in general strain theory. These pathways were tested in a sample of 3,411 youth (1,728 boys, 1,683 girls) from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. A causal mediation analysis performed on three nonoverlapping waves of data, in which prior levels of each predicted variable were controlled, uncovered support for peer delinquency as a mediator of the perpetration–victimization pathway but failed to identify anger as a mediator of the victimization–perpetration pathway. Additional research is required to identify a mediator for the victimization–perpetration pathway and determine whether variables other than peer delinquency mediate the perpetration–victimization pathway.

The study involved examining the mediating effects of bystanders’ pro-bullying behaviors and defending behaviors between variables of school climate – teacher–student relationship, student–student ...

This study investigated the mediating and/or moderating role of pre-adolescent learners’ perception of their parent-child attachment on the relationships between perceived parenting dimensions (acc...

BACKGROUND Violence and bullying perpetration among boys are major public health problems. We address gaps in the literature by examining: (1) how risk and protective factors co-occur, and (2) how different risk/protection profiles are associated with violence and bullying perpetration among adolescent boys. METHODS Data came from the population-based 2016 Minnesota Student Survey. The analytic sample included boys in grades 8, 9, and 11 (N = 63,818). Latent profile analyses identified patterns of 22 behavioral, intrapersonal, family, and school and community risk/protective factors. Logistic regression analyses examined how these patterns related to violence and bullying perpetration. RESULTS We identified 5 groups: Class 1: Low risk, high safety, high connectedness; Class 2: Low risk, moderate safety, moderate connectedness; Class 3: Moderate risk, high safety, moderate connectedness; Class 4: High risk, moderate safety, low connectedness; and Class 5: High risk, low safety, low connectedness. Compared to Class 1, Class 5 students had the highest odds of all for violence and bullying perpetration. Class 4 students also demonstrated high odds of violence and bullying, compared to Class 1. Though not as high as Classes 4 or 5, Class 2 and 3 students showed higher odds for both outcomes, compared to Class 1. CONCLUSIONS Substantive variations exist in boys who engage in violence and bullying. We highlight cumulative, co-occurring risk factors, connectedness to parents and other prosocial adults (eg, teachers), and school and neighborhood safety as important factors to address in school health programs seeking to prevent violence and bullying perpetration among boys.

Self-esteem has been identified as a predictor of bullying perpetration and victimization, which, in turn, may lead to school adjustment problems. However, findings regarding the direction and strength of these associations have been inconclusive. This study aimed to resolve this by differentiating between offline and cyber contexts and various self-esteem domains. An online sample of 459 adolescents retrospectively completed measures of self-esteem domains and offline/cyber perpetration and victimization, and a subsample of 194 adolescents also completed measures of loneliness and school adjustment. A mediation analysis of bullying-related variables on the effect of self-esteem domains on school adjustment indicated that offline victimization was the only significant mediator. Positive indirect effects were found for social and emotional self-esteem, and negative indirect effects were found for school performance-related self-esteem. Furthermore, person-oriented analyses examined differences in bullying-related roles regarding self-esteem domains, loneliness, and school adjustment. Victim groups showed lower self-esteem in many domains, but cyber victims showed higher body-related self-esteem. Bullies showed lower school performance-related but higher social self-esteem. Both bullies and victims showed lower school adjustment and more loneliness. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, as the findings are relevant for teachers and could be used to develop and deploy more effective anti-bullying programs.

Experience of bullying may be a significant risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). This study had three aims: to systematically investigate the association between bullying and NSSI, analyze the possible mechanisms underlying the two phenomena, and evaluate any differences between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration with respect to NSSI. A systematic search about the association between bullying victimization and perpetration and NSSI was conducted using specific databases (PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct). The following keywords were used in all database searches: "bullying" AND "NSSI" OR "peer victimization" and NSSI. The searches in PubMed, Scopus and Science Direct revealed a total of 88 articles about bullying or peer victimization and NSSI. However, only 29 met our inclusion criteria and were used for the present review. Overall, all studies examined victimization; four studies also evaluated the effects of perpetration and one included bully-victims. According to the main findings, both being a victim of bullying and perpetrating bullying may increase the risk of adverse psychological outcomes in terms of NSSI and suicidality in the short and the long run. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review to systematically evaluate the relation between bullying victimization/perpetration and NSSI. The main results support a positive association. Future research should evaluate the possible role of specific mediators/moderators of the association between experience of bullying and NSSI.

Background Adolescence is a life stage with a high risk of depression, sleep disorders and school bullying. The aim of this study is to examine the longitudinal relationships between school bullying (bullying victimization and bullying perpetration), depressive symptoms and sleep problems among adolescents and to consider whether the direct pathways vary by gender. Methods The study included 1687 7th grade students (60.4% boys) recruited from a middle school in southeastern China. We collected self-reports of school bullying, depressive symptoms and sleep problems from 2019 (T1) and 2020 (T2) among adolescents. A series of gender-specified cross-lagged paths in a structural equation model was used for the primary analysis. Results The models revealed evidence for bidirectional associations between school bullying, depressive symptoms and sleep problems. Among girls, higher bullying perpetration at T1 predicted fewer sleep problems and depressive symptoms at T2, while bullying victimization significantly predicted poor quality of sleep and severe depressive symptoms. Furthermore, sleep problems at T1 positively predicted bullying perpetration and victimization at T2 in boys but not in girls. For both boys and girls, severe depressive symptoms significantly predicted more victimization and sleep problems, and sleep problems were positively associated with depressive symptoms. Limitations The sample is unrepresentative, as it is from only one middle school. Conclusions Our findings highlight that school bullying, depressive symptoms and sleep problems were interrelated across time and that acknowledging gender differences is important.

Joint growth trajectories of bullying perpetration and victimization were examined using 5-year panel data (2004–2008) from a sample of 2,844 South Korean adolescents between the ages of 11 and 15 (fourth to eighth grade). The second-order growth mixture model revealed three distinct subgroups: bully-victims to low bully-victims transition (9.9%); moderate bully-victims to victim transition (6.8%); and a limited involvement/stable group (83.3%). Respondents with less self-control who associated with delinquent peers were more likely to be members of both the bully-victims to low bully-victims transition and the moderate bully-victims to victim transition groups, compared with the limited involvement/stable group. Relative to the limited involvement/stable group, adolescents with less self-control were more likely to be members of both transition groups even after controlling for opportunity measures. Delinquent peer associations partially mediated these associations.

Empathy has been often negatively associated with bullying perpetration, whereas tendencies to be exploitative have been relatively understudied with bullying. Empathic concern and exploitation may also indirectly link distal social-ecological factors to bullying perpetration. Therefore, the associations among personality (i.e., empathic concern, exploitation), self-perceived social-ecological factors (school bonding, social resources), and bullying perpetration were examined in a sample of 531 adolescents across three years of high school in Ontario, Canada (i.e., Grades 9 to 11; mean age 14.96 [SD = 0.37] in Grade 9). As expected, exploitation had concurrent and longitudinal associations with bullying, but unexpectedly empathic concern only had concurrent associations and no longitudinal associations with bullying. Also as expected, exploitation indirectly linked self-perceived social resources to bullying perpetration, but unexpectedly there were no indirect effects with empathic concern. Findings suggest a complex social ecology whereby a lack of empathic concern may remain an important correlate of bullying within each year of high school, whereas exploitative tendencies may be an important predictor of bullying across the high school years, including to strategically leverage self-perceived social resources.

This study assessed longitudinal associations between bullying and intimate partner violence (IPV) among adolescents and young adults in a U.S.-based cohort study. Participants (N= 5,279) reported past-year bullying when they were 14–20 years old and reported lifetime experiences of IPV when they were 20–27 years old. The results indicate that participants reporting being bullied more than twice were at elevated risk of IPV victimization compared to participants reporting no bullying victimization, adjusting for bullying perpetration and covariates. Participants reporting bullying others once or more were at elevated risk of IPV perpetration compared to participants reporting no bullying perpetration, adjusting for bullying victimization and covariates. There was no evidence that the associations differed by gender. Results suggest that adolescents carry forward behaviors from their peer relationships to their dating relationships. Findings may have implications for school-based programs, which should explicitly integrate IPV prevention into bullying prevention efforts.

Objectives: Social scientists have devoted much theoretical and empirical attention to studying the correlates of bullying perpetration and victimization. Much less attention has been devoted to studying race differences in the correlates of bullying behaviors despite the importance of these when designing effective and focused prevention and intervention programs. Methods: Utilizing data from the 2009 to 2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study in the United States, this study applies Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to bullying in order to examine how various interrelated systems are associated with bullying perpetration, victimization, and their concordance in a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Results: Findings shown important similarities, as well as some differences, across race in how key parental and peer relationships relate to aspects of involvement in bullying. Directions for future research are noted.

This study investigated the gender-specific effects of social achievement goals – i.e., social development goals, social demonstration approach goals, and social demonstration avoid goals – on bull...

The present study examined whether having had an incarcerated adult family member was associated with youth bullying perpetration. The study also examined whether exposure to delinquent peers’ norms, trauma, and externalizing behaviors mediated the link between adult family member’s incarceration and bullying perpetration. The study sample consisted of 638 African American adolescents, aged 13 to 21, in Chicago’s Southside. Major findings indicated that 46.8% of the study participants reported bullying perpetration (i.e., at least 1 to 2 times in the past 30 days). Moreover, an adult family member’s incarceration history was found to be positively associated with having peers who endorsed delinquent norms, trauma, and externalizing behaviors, which were linked to youth’s bullying perpetration. Programs addressing youth bullying need to consider the family dynamics.

Background: Adolescents with obesity are more likely to experience bullying in comparison to their healthy weight peers. However, it is unclear whether adolescents with obesity are more likely to perpetuate bullying or be both, a bully perpetrator and a bully victim. The purpose of this analysis was to examine differences in bully perpetration, victimization, and both (perpetration and victimization) by BMI classification in a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Methods: Analyses included 31,770 adolescents, ages 10–17, from the combined 2016–2017 National Survey of Children's Health. Adolescents were grouped by BMI classification; outcome variables included bullying, difficulty making new friends, excessive arguing, depression, and behavioral conduct problems. Logistic regression models, adjusted for age, sex, race, household income, highest level of education in the household, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder assessed the odds of each outcome comparing healthy weight to adolescents with overweight and obesity. Results: Adolescents with overweight and obesity had greater odds of experiencing bullying behaviors: bully victim [odds ratio (OR) = 1.34 and 2.03] and both bully perpetrator and victim (OR = 1.37 and 2.01) (p's

Using data gathered from 757 college students in South Korea, the current study examines applicability of situational action theory (SAT) to online bullying perpetration (OBP). Specifically, the current study focuses on testing interplays between motivations in the criminogenic online setting (temptation and provocation) and individual propensities (morality and self-control) as well as interplay between two individual propensities on OBP. Results show that morality significantly buffers the effects of provocation on OBP as expected, while morality unexpectedly enhances effects of temptation on OBP. Moreover, the current study found no significant interaction between two propensities, morality and self-control. Thus, future studies should focus on examining how roles of morality vary depending on different types of offenses and contexts.

Peer bullying in schools is a significant public health problem that contributes to poor health and wellbeing outcomes for those who bully or are bullied. Meta-analyses of the efficacy of secondary school bullying prevention interventions have typically found no effects or an increase in student bullying. Consequently, few secondary school studies have examined the “real-world” effectiveness of these interventions. This age-cohort study design evaluated the effectiveness of the Friendly Schools (FS) secondary school intervention, previously found to be efficacious. FS was implemented in schools under real-world conditions by an education publisher. Student survey data were collected in 12 schools. The primary outcomes were bullying victimisation and perpetration. Results showed a significant decrease in reported bullying perpetration in subsequent cohorts of both grade 8 and 9 students, and a significant reduction in bullying victimisation and cybervictimisation for grade 8 students, when the FS student curriculum was taught compared to the usual curriculum. This study demonstrates the importance of considering the effectiveness of secondary school bullying prevention interventions and real-world implementation supports for schools.

Relationships with parents and peers are crucial for children's socialization, but how parent–child and peer relationships mutually affect each other is not well understood. Guided by spillover theory, we zoomed in on the bidirectional interplay between parental rejection and warmth on the one hand and peer victimization on the other, and examined whether children's maladjustment symptoms mediated hypothesized cross-domain spillover effects. Data stem from five waves of the longitudinal KiVa study among 9,770 children (50% boys; mean age = 9.16, standard deviation = 1.29). Results from random intercept cross-lagged panel models showed that higher parental rejection and lower parental warmth predicted increases in peer victimization and vice versa across waves, thus supporting the bidirectional model. Moreover, spillover from parent–child rejection and warmth to peer victimization was partially driven by children's depressive symptoms and bullying perpetration. Vice versa, spillover from peer victimization to parent–child rejection and warmth was partially driven by children's social anxiety, depressive symptoms, conduct problems, and bullying perpetration. Thus, children might get caught in persistent problems in two important social domains, and these two domains influence each other through children's maladjustment. Family and school interventions should be integrated to prevent a downwards spiral.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the latent structure type (categorical vs. dimensional) of bullying perpetration in a large sample of middle school students. A nine-item bullying scale was administered to 1,222 (625 boys, 597 girls) early adolescents enrolled in middle schools in a Midwestern state. Based on the results of a principal axis factoring analysis, the nine items were organized into four homogeneous scales. These scales were then used as indicators in a taxometric analysis of the bullying perpetration construct. According to the results of three nonredundant taxometric procedures (mean above minus below a cut, maximum covariance, and latent mode factor analysis), the total sample showed evidence of dimensional or continuous latent structure, but the male and female subsamples produced outcomes that were more ambiguous. Because the indicators were highly skewed and leptokurtic, raw scores were converted to rank normalized scores and the taxometric analyses recomputed. These recomputed analyses provided unequivocal support for dimensional latent structure in the total sample as well as in both subsamples. From these results, it was surmised that bullying perpetration is continuously organized and that rank normalized scores may improve the interpretability of taxometric findings derived from highly nonnormal indicators.

ObjectivePsychotic experiences, such as hallucinations, occur commonly in children and have been related to bullying victimization. However, whether bullying perpetration, peer rejection, or peer acceptance are related to hallucinatory experiences has remained under-examined. We used a novel peer nomination method to examine whether (i) bullying perpetration and (ii) social positions within peer networks were associated with future hallucinatory experiences.MethodsThis prospective study was embedded in the population-based Generation R Study. Bullying perpetration, peer rejection, and peer acceptance were assessed using peer nominations at age 7 years (N = 925). Using a social network analysis, we estimated social positions within peer rejection and acceptance networks. Bullying victimization was assessed using self-reports. Self-reported hallucinatory experiences were assessed at age 10 years. Analyses were adjusted for sociodemographic covariates.ResultsHigher levels of bullying perpetration were prospectively associated with an increased burden of hallucinatory experiences (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.05–1.43, p = 0.011). Bullies had a 50% higher, and bully-victims had a 89% higher odds, of endorsing hallucinatory experiences three years later than children who were not involved in bullying (ORbully = 1.50, 95% CI 1.01–2.24, p = 0.045; ORbully-victim = 1.89, 95% CI 1.15–3.10, p = 0.012). Unfavorable positions within peer rejection networks, but not peer acceptance networks, were associated with an increased risk for hallucinatory experiences (ORpeer rejection = 1.24, 95% CI 1.07–1.44, pFDR-corrected = 0.024).ConclusionUsing peer reports, we observed that bullies and socially rejected children have a higher likelihood to report hallucinatory experiences in pre-adolescence. Children who are both a bully and a victim of bullying (ie, bully-victims) may be particularly vulnerable for psychotic experiences.

Bullying perpetration has been proposed to be a strategic behavior used by adolescents to compete for social resources, yet the co-development of bullying perpetration and trait hypercompetitiveness is understudied. The joint developmental trajectories of self-rated bullying perpetration and parent-rated hypercompetitiveness were investigated in a sample of adolescents and childhood social, emotional, and physical predictors were explored.In a sample of 607 adolescents (Using latent class growth analyses, the three expected joint trajectory groups of primary interest were found: (1) a pattern of moderate stable bullying perpetration and high increasing hypercompetitiveness (high-risk group), (2) a pattern of low decreasing bullying and high increasing hypercompetitiveness (hypercompetitive only group), and (3) a pattern of low decreasing bullying and low stable hypercompetitiveness (low-risk group). Adolescents reflecting the high-risk joint trajectory pattern were differentiated from adolescents reflecting the other two trajectory patterns by having more adverse childhood social, emotional, and physical predictors.Findings indicate that bullying is a developmental and context-dependent behavior that can reflect trait hypercompetitiveness. Bullying prevention efforts should focus on reducing emphasis on outcompeting peers and instead facilitate a sense of self-acceptance, awareness, and accomplishment within prosocial school and family environments.

Our work aimed to study the relationships between different dimensions of school climate, moral disengagement, empathy, and bullying behaviors (perpetration and victimization). The study sample consisted of 629 students (304 boys and 325 girls) aged 12–14 years (M= 12.55,SD= 0.67). Results showed how different dimensions of school climate predicted moral disengagement, empathy, and victimization, and these, in turn, predicted bullying perpetration. The results show the need to generate favorable educational environments to reduce the levels of moral disengagement and victimization and to increase empathy in students as a strategy to prevent negative consequences related to bullying.

Previous research has shown that many school-based anti-bullying programs are effective. A prior meta-analysis (Gaffney, Ttofi, & Farrington, 2019) found that intervention programs are effective in reducing school-bullying perpetration by approximately 19-20% and school-bullying victimization by approximately 15-16%. Using data from this prior meta-analysis, the aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between effectiveness estimates and specific elements of anti-bullying programs. Specific intervention components in line with a socio-ecological framework were coded as present or absent. Components were coded on the following levels: school, classroom, teacher, parent, peer, individual, and intervention. Meta-analytical subgroup comparisons analogous to ANOVA were computed to examine the relationship between the presence of specific components and the effectiveness in reducing bullying perpetration (n = 82) and victimization (n = 86). Results indicated that the presence of a number of intervention components (e.g., whole-school approach, anti-bullying policies, classroom rules, information for parents, informal peer involvement, and work with victims) were significantly associated with larger effect sizes for school-bullying perpetration outcomes. The presence of informal peer involvement and information for parents were associated with larger effect sizes for school-bullying victimization outcomes. Meta-regression analyses showed no significant relationship between effectiveness and the number of intervention components included in a program. The present report contributes to the understanding of 'what works' in reducing school-bullying perpetration and victimization. The impact of these findings on future anti-bullying research is discussed.

Previous research has found that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children is related to bullying perpetration. This study examined the correlation between ADHD and bullying perpetration, and aimed to identify which factors, including bullying victimization, predicted bullying. Forty-nine elementary school students, aged 6-12, participated voluntarily in a comparative study between children with ADHD and non-ADHD control children; none of them had previously undergone psychiatric treatment. Both parents' and participants' social demographic information (gender, age) and clinical variables were obtained from self-report questionnaires. The participants' bullying victimization experience, impulsivity, and parents' history of ADHD had significant relationships with bullying. The status of ADHD and other self-reported scales had no significant relationships with bullying. The association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration was notable among all factors examined. This was consistent with the claims of prior studies that past victimization led to perpetration of bullying. Therefore, it seems that when treating victims of bullying, care should be taken, through proper intervention, to ensure the incident is neither repeated nor replicated. Characteristics associated with ADHD, including impulsivity and parents' history of ADHD, were significantly related to bullying. However, we could not confirm our hypothesis that ADHD itself might be associated with bullying behavior.

It has previously been hypothesised that individuals with elevated ADHD symptoms are at greater risk of bullying perpetration and victimization; however, a lack of high-quality longitudinal data has meant that this hypothesis is yet to be adequately tested. Using autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals (ALT-SR) and four waves (ages 11, 13, 15 and 17) of longitudinal data from the BLINDED STUDY NAME (n=1526, 52% male), we evaluated the developmental relations between ADHD and bullying using both self- and teacher-reported ADHD symptom data. Analyses suggested that ADHD symptoms primarily increase the risk of bullying perpetration, with a within-person effect of ADHD symptoms on bullying perpetration symptoms identified across ages 13 to 15 (β=.13) and ages 15 to 17 (β=.19) based on self-reported ADHD symptoms; and a similar effect identified across ages 11 to 13 (β=.24) and 13 to 15 (β=.29) based on teacher-reported inattention symptoms. There were also some indications of reciprocal effects and effects involving victimization that merit further exploration in future research. Results imply that the content of bullying intervention and prevention programs should take account of ADHD symptoms in order to ensure that those with elevated ADHD symptoms can benefit from these interventions as much as their typically developing peers. This will involve addressing bullying perpetration that may reflect impulsive/reactive aggression and impaired social skills rather than instrumental aggression. Further, programs should go beyond classical curriculum/classroom-based delivery to ensure that individuals with elevated ADHD symptoms can be successfully engaged.