Participant Roles In Bullying Research Articles

Associations Among Middle School Students’ Bullying Roles and Social Skills

This study explored the relations among self-reported bully participant role behaviors (i.e., bullying, assisting, experiencing victimization, defending, and outsider behavior) and self-reported social skills (i.e., cooperation, assertion, empathy, and self-control) among boys and girls. The sample consisted of 636 middle school students (52% boys, 84% White). Results indicated several significant relations between bullying participant behaviors and social skills with some gender differences in those relations as well. Most notably, defenders have higher levels of multiple social skills. Future research should seek out additional information regarding inter- and intra-personal characteristics in order to be able to better understand bullying participant role behaviors.

Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire (BPBQ): Establishing a Reliable and Valid Measure

The current study further establishes the reliability and validity of the Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire (BPBQ), a self-report survey that allows for an examination of participation in various bullying participant role behaviors including bully, assistant to the bully, victim, defender of the victim, and outsider. The study included 801 sixth- through eighth-grade students. The results of the study confirmed a five-factor structure (Bully, Assistant, Victim, Defender, and Outsider). Internal consistency of the subscales was high and item-subscale correlations were all significant and moderate to high. Correlations among the BPBQ subscales and with additional measures, including the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition, Self-Report of Personality (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004), the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), and an unpublished victim measure (Demaray & Malecki, 2003), provided evidence of concordant, convergent, and divergent validity. Gender and grade level differences were also investigated among the bullying participant behaviors.

Empathetic responsiveness, group norms, and prosocial affiliations in bullying roles.

In this study, the relationships among gender, empathetic responsiveness, perceived group norms, prosocial affiliations, and bullying roles were examined for 262 fifth- through eighth-grade students (n = 141 males; n = 121 females). According to the Bullying Participant Roles Survey (BPRS), participants were identified as defenders (n = 135; 51.5%), victims (n = 48; 18.3%), bullies (n = 39; 14.9%), and outsiders (n = 26; 9.9%). Results of multinominal logistic regression revealed that empathetic responsiveness was a significant predictor of defending behavior and an inverse predictor of outsider behavior. Gender also predicted defending behavior, with boys being more likely to defend than girls. In addition, participants who indicated that their friends supported bullying were more likely to be involved in bullying perpetration and victimization. An unexpected interaction effect between prosocial affiliations and group norms indicated that girls who reported more probullying group norms but whose friends reported having more prosocial tendencies were more likely to assume roles of bullies and victims than outsiders. Implications for practice are outlined, including recommendations for antibullying initiatives.

„Wer ist der Boss?“ – Zum Zusammenhang zwischen der sozialen Dynamik im Klassenzimmer und Einstellungen zum Lernen in der Adoleszenz

Research shows that antisocial behavior and learning are negatively related whereas prosocial behavior and learning are positively related, but evidence on how the social dynamics in class influence learning attitudes is non-existent. We were interested in tracking unsystematic differences in learning attitudes on a class level and how they relate to social impact based on dominance or social status. 1,159 pupils from 43 7th to 9th grade classrooms filled in a questionnaire on learning attitudes (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) and nominated their classmates on participant roles in bullying, resource control strategies, and social status. Based on hierarchical linear modeling we analyzed whether and how specific pupils influence the learning attitude of their classmates. Results show that the average learning attitude in class can be predicted by the most dominant individual. Nearly 9% of variance in individual learning attitude can be explained by group effects. The learning attitude of the individual identified highest on coercive and prosocial strategies and on social impact predicts 77% of the respective group variance. Educational implications need to focus on the psychological relevance of dominant children that may impede the developmentally appropriate progress of each individual in their classroom.

Bullying im Grundschulalter

When bullying happens in secondary school peer involvement and distinct participant roles for nine often children (as bully, assistant, reinforcer, defender, outsider or victim) are well evidenced. However, it is still unclear to what extent this applies to primary school children: How precise do they represent roles and how stable is individual role behavior across different contexts? For all 251 children (53% male) of a Munich primary school (6 to 10 years, first to fourth grade) Participant Roles in bullying (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Björkqvist, Osterman, Kaukiainen, 1996) were assessed in standardized interviews. Additionally, for 119 of these children (58 % male) a participant role could be identified in their after school group (Hort). Our findings confirm the existence of distinct participant roles in bullying for primary school children, but a high intercorrelation between the pro-aggressive roles is noticeable. Especially the bully and the victim role turn out to be quite stable across contexts. An analysis by grades suggests a considerable impact of contextual characteristics: children's behavior in bullying situations seems to be affected by the range of behavioral choices the different contexts provide.

Determinants of adolescents’ active defending and passive bystanding behavior in bullying

The literature on participant roles in bullying lacks empirical studies that seek to explain what differentiates defenders from outsiders (or passive bystanders). The present study tested a conceptual model in which two personal characteristics of early adolescent students (empathy and perceived social self-efficacy) were considered as possible determinants of their participant behavior in bullying episodes. A total of 294 Italian early adolescents (mean age=13.3 years, range: 12–14) participated in the study. The structural equation modeling showed that high levels of empathic responsiveness were positively associated with both active defending and passive bystanding behavior, as assessed through peer nominations. In contrast, high levels of social self-efficacy were associated with helping behavior, whereas low levels of social self-efficacy were associated with passive bystanding behavior. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for researchers and educational practitioners.