Sibling, Peer, and Cyber Bullying Among Children and Adolescents: Co-occurrence and Implications for Their Adjustment.

Slava Dantchev,Martina Zemp

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.761276

Abstract

Bullying across the sibling, peer, and cyber context has consistently been associated with a range of long-term health and well-being consequences for children and adolescents. Although research examining different bullying forms simultaneously in the same study are emerging, it remains unclear to what extend sibling, peer, and cyber bullying co-occur and in what ways they are associated. Moreover, previous work has demonstrated that children and adolescents who experience multiple forms of victimization are at a particular risk of adverse outcomes. However, whether different constellations of co-occurring bullying forms have differential impacts has not yet been investigated sufficiently. The aim of the present study was to examine the frequencies of isolated and co-occurring sibling, peer, and cyber bullying as well as to explore their independent and cumulative relationships with child adjustment. This study was based on a sample of 329 children and adolescents aged between 9 and 15. Bullying experiences across the sibling, peer, and cyber context in the previous 6 months were assessed via self-report. Youth further reported on emotional problems, conduct problems, sleep problems, and academic achievement via an online questionnaire. Sibling, peer, and cyber bullying were uniquely associated with child outcomes. A cumulative relationship between bullying victimization across contexts and emotional problems, conduct problems, and sleep problems could be identified, while bullying perpetration across contexts was only linked to more conduct problems in a cumulative manner. The findings have important practical implications arguing for the adoption of a holistic approach toward bullying in prevention and intervention.

Highlights

According to Olweus (1996), bullying is defined as aggressive behavior or intentional harm doing which is carried out repeatedly over time in an interpersonal relationship characterized by an imbalance of power
In the peer context a mean prevalence rate of 35% has been reported for any involvement, whereas 15% has been reported for cyber bullying involvement according to meta-analytic data (Modecki et al, 2014), with prevalence estimates for victimization typically being higher compared to perpetration in both contexts (Jadambaa et al, 2019; Lebrun-Harris et al, 2019)
Comparative associations between independent and cumulative associations of sibling, peer, and cyber bullying with emotional problems, conduct problems, sleep problems, and academic achievement were investigated in order to establish whether different bullying forms contributed uniquely to child adjustment and whether a dose-response relationship could be identified

Summary

Introduction

According to Olweus (1996), bullying is defined as aggressive behavior or intentional harm doing which is carried out repeatedly over time in an interpersonal relationship characterized by an imbalance of power. Prevalence rates range from 15 to 50% for sibling victimization and 10 to 40% for sibling perpetration (Wolke et al, 2015). In the peer context a mean prevalence rate of 35% has been reported for any involvement, whereas 15% has been reported for cyber bullying involvement according to meta-analytic data (Modecki et al, 2014), with prevalence estimates for victimization typically being higher compared to perpetration in both contexts (Jadambaa et al, 2019; Lebrun-Harris et al, 2019). Representative population studies agree, that victimization by siblings is reported more frequently than by peers (Finkelhor et al, 2015; Dantchev et al, 2019). In order to make more accurate comparisons and gain a better understanding of the prevalence and interrelation between sibling, peer, and cyber bullying, studies that measure these constructs together within the same sample are needed

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Conclusion