Adolescent bullying and personality: A cross-cultural approach

Abstract

Researchers have suggested that heritable personality traits may predispose individuals to be willing to engage in the behavior. In particular, previous research has demonstrated a link between bullying perpetration and low levels of the HEXACO personality factor Honesty-Humility, which is a measure of an individual's willingness to exploit others. However, to date, evidence for the importance of low Honesty-Humility (versus low Agreeableness or Emotionality) has been drawn from North American or European samples. The present study attempts to address this gap by comparing data from 440 Chinese adolescents and 350 Canadian adolescents who completed the HEXACO-PR-I personality inventory along with a bullying questionnaire. We predicted that the personality factor Honesty-Humility would be a stronger predictor Chinese and Canadian adolescents' bullying perpetration than would anger (low A) or low empathy, emotional concern, and anxiety (low E). Results of hierarchical linear regressions confirmed that Honesty-Humility, as well as Conscientiousness, were significantly, negatively related to bullying perpetration in both samples. This suggests a cross-cultural profile of bullies as exploitative and impulsive, although Chinese bullies exhibited a more complex relationship with personality that included low Agreeableness and high eXtraversion. Implications of these results for the adaptive theory of bullying are discussed.