Why do bullies matter?: The impacts of bullying involvement on Adolescents' life satisfaction via an adaptive approach

Abstract

School bullying is a serious social concern not only for individuals but also for public policymakers. It is well known that bullying creates various kinds of risks and problems, but it is unclear whether bullies are also affected by the negative impacts of bullying. The ambiguity of prior research on the impacts of bullying on adolescents' well-being is mostly due to lack of attention towards the pure and highly specified definition of the subjects involved. This study examines the impacts of bullying involvement on adolescents' life-satisfaction based on an adaptive approach. Using the HBSC Scottish Survey 2014, the study found that pure bullies are not at risk of negative effects of bullying once family and school environments were taken into account. Pure-victims and bully-victims are in vulnerable situations even if they have family or school supports. These results lend support to the hypothesis. In order to find an effective anti-bullying strategy, further and effective measures based on an adaptive approach are required.