Citation

Pollastri AR, Cardemil EV, O'Donnell EH. J. Interpers. Violence 2010; 25(8): 1489-1502.

Affiliation

Clark University, Worcester, MA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0886260509354579

PMID

20040706

Abstract

Past research on the self-esteem of bullies has produced equivocal results. Recent studies have suggested that the inconsistent findings may be due, in part, to the failure to account for bully/victims: those children who both bully and are victims of bullying. In this longitudinal study, we examined the distinctions among pure bullies, pure victims, bully/victims, and non-involved children in a sample of 307 middle school students. Analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal results supported the importance of distinguishing between pure bullies and bully/victims. In addition, results revealed some interesting sex differences: girls in the pure bully and bully/victim groups reported significant increases in self-esteem over time, with girls in the pure bully group reporting the greatest increase, whereas boys in these groups reported no significant changes in self-esteem over time.

Language: en