Will violence cycle? The reciprocal relationship between children’s bullying involvement and interparental conflict

Abstract

With the continuous increase in bullying incidents and its serious consequences, school bullying poses a serious challenge to children’s physical and mental health. As an essential family environment factor, interparental conflict is closely related to bullying/victimization. However, it remains unknown whether school bullying/victimization impacts the conflict between parents. Our study used a longitudinal tracking design to explore the bidirectional relationship and internal mechanism between interparental conflict and bullying/victimization. Nine hundred eighty-one children aged 8 to 11 in China completed the Bully/Victim Questionnaire and Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale at three-time points. The results indicated a significant bidirectional relationship between interparental conflict and bullying, but not between interparental conflict and victimization. In addition, bullying at T1 could predict both bullying and victimization at T3 through interparental conflict at T2. The findings not only identified differences in the mechanisms of bullying and victimization but also revealed a vicious circle between interparental conflict and children’s bullying involvement.