Descriptive analysis of the nature and extent of bullying behavior in a maximum‐security prison

This aim of this study was to investigate the nature and extent of direct and indirect bullying in a maximum‐security prison and to assess prisoners' attitudes toward victims of bullying. A total of 194 adult male prisoners completed the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behavior Checklist (DIPC) [Ireland (1998): University of Central Lancashire; Ireland (1999a): Aggressive Behavior] and a modified version of the Rigby and Slee [1991: J Social Psychol 131:615–627] provictim scale. The results showed that more than half of the prisoners sampled had been bullied in the past week. Only a small number of prisoners could be classified as either a pure bully or a pure victim, with almost half classified as both a bully and a victim. The most frequent types of bullying used were psychological/verbal and indirect forms. No significant differences were found between pure bullies, bully/victims, pure victims, and the not involved groups' attitudes toward the victims of bullying. These findings hold implications for anti‐bullying programs that fail to fully consider the prevalence of indirect forms of bullying and that an individual can be both a bully and a victim. Aggr. Behav. 26:213–223, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

社会网络视角下儿童青少年同伴关系网络与欺凌相关行为的共同变化关系

欺凌是一种群体动态过程,同伴生态是欺凌发生发展的重要情境。虽然已有研究重视影响欺凌的同伴因素,但从群体动态关系视角细致探讨欺凌相关行为(欺凌、受欺凌和保护行为)发展变化的研究仍十分有限。从社会网络与欺凌相关行为相互影响的关键问题入手,重点考察欺凌相关行为在同伴关系网络中的发展进程,揭示了同伴关系网络的结构特征和内部关系作为欺凌相关行为是否发生、如何发展的重要生态标志,阐明了存在相同行为特征的个体分群汇聚的选择效应和群体内行为传染的影响效应。未来研究应结合多维社会网络、多类型网络结构和关系特征、不同欺凌角色以及我国本土化特点等进一步加强欺凌治理的群体生态研究,从而更好地为群体生态层面上的欺凌治理提供科学依据。     

Bullies and delinquents: personal characteristics and parental styles

This research aimed to analyse the personal characteristics and parental styles of bullies and delinquents, and to establish which factors were related to the bully/delinquent group and which were related to only bullies or only delinquents. A self‐report questionnaire on bullying and delinquency was completed by 113 girls and 125 boys aged 11–14 in a middle school in Rome. Bullying and delinquency were more common among boys than among girls. Bullying did not vary significantly with age, but delinquency increased with age. Bullying and delinquency were especially related for boys and for older students. Only bullies were younger, while only delinquents were older, suggesting that bullying might be an early stage on a developmental sequence leading to delinquency. Only bullies and only delinquents had different parenting correlates; only bullies had authoritarian parents and disagreed with their parents, whereas only delinquents had conflictual and low supportive parents. This suggested that bullying and delinquency are not merely different behavioural manifestations of the same underlying construct. Parent training interventions might prevent both bullying and delinquency. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mindfulness,impulsivity, and moral disengagement as parameters of bullying and victimization at school

The aim of the present study was to examine the existing association between mindfulness, impulsivity, moral disengagement, and bullying experiences at school. Longitudinal data were collected in three points in time (T1, T2, T3) with 6 months interval between them. Participants were 558 adolescents attending secondary schools in Cyprus, with their ages ranging from 14 to 17 years (M = 15.3; standard deviation = 0.69). Through structural equation modeling, it was found that mindfulness at T1 had a significant negative effect on both impulsivity and moral disengagement at T2 and these, in turn, had a positive effect on bullying and victimization at T3. Thus, mindfulness had an indirect effect on both bullying and victimization, fully mediated by impulsivity and moral disengagement.     

Moderating the bullying perpetration–delinquency relationship with parental support and knowledge: A prospective analysis of middle school students

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether parental support and knowledge moderate the relationship between bullying perpetration and delinquency. A sample of 305 middle school students (141 boys, 164 girls; 10–12 years of age) served as participants in this study. The research hypothesis predicted that parental support and knowledge would moderate the prospective bullying–delinquency relationship. Testing this hypothesis with least squares regression parametric coefficients and percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals, parental support received full support and parental knowledge no support as factors potentially capable of reducing risk for future delinquency by interacting with prior bullying perpetration. Whereas parental support decreased the odds of high bullying boys engaging in future delinquency—an outcome consistent with the view that parenting can serve a protective function against future offending by neutralizing the risk effect of bullying—parental knowledge failed to reduce future delinquency in children who bullied, although it did have a direct ameliorative effect on future delinquency. The protective effect was strongest when parental support was high and parental knowledge low, whereas the risk effect was strongest when parental support was low and parental knowledge was medium to high. These results suggest that protective and risk effects are limited to certain combinations of protective and risk factors.     

When the bullied peer is native-born vs. immigrant: A mixed-method study with a sample of native-born and immigrant adolescents

An increasing number of immigrant students attend Italian schools, with the possibility of being involved in bullying episodes. A few studies have investigated this phenomenon, providing some evidence that immigrant students may face an increased risk of being bullied compared to native-born students. The present study adopted a mixed-method design, which may better detect the dynamics of bullying towards immigrant peers. Participants were 692 native-born and immigrant students (20.5% with immigrant background; 54.8% females) who filled in self-report measures about their bullying experiences, popularity, acceptance of diversity at school, and prejudice. Thirty-five pupils (54% with immigrant background) were also interviewed. Two hypothetical bullying scenarios were presented: one depicting a native-born victim and one depicting an immigrant victim. After each scenario, adolescents were encouraged to reason about the motives for bullying. Quantitative data showed that general bullying was associated with perceived popularity status among peers, while racial bullying was associated with prejudice but not peer status. The relevance of anti-immigrant prejudices in driving racial bullying emerged also from adolescents’ interviews. The qualitative data indicated that among the reasons for bullying, adolescents mentioned a desire for dominance and popularity, in particular when the victim was non-immigrant. Findings suggest that, in addition to individual and peer group-related risk factors, prejudice also needs to be addressed in anti-bullying interventions aimed to counteract racial bullying.