Bully/victim problems and coping with stress in school among 10- to 12-year-old pupils in Åland, Finland

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate connections between roles in bullying and coping with stress in school. The differences between pupils who were victims of different types of bullying were also analysed. The participants were 510 ten- to twelve-year-old pupils. Slightly modified versions of the Bully/Victim Questionnaire [Olweus D (1978): Hemisphere; (1993): Cosmoprint] and the Life Events and Coping Inventory [Dise-Lewis (1988): Psychosomatic Medicine 50:484–499] were used. The results suggest that the coping strategies of “aggression” and “self-destruction” were associated with bullying. For boys, victims of bullying did not differ as much as bullies, and especially bully/victims, from uninvolved pupils. For girls, there was a tendency for victims of indirect bullying to use more “self-destruction” strategies compared with victims of direct bullying. Aggr. Behav. 26:57–65, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.