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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: This study tests a four-path mediation model in which bullying victimization was hypothesized to predict a rise in hostility, an expansion of delinquent peer associations, and growth in pro-bullying attitudes, all of which were tied to an increase in future bullying perpetration.
METHOD: The four-path model was tested on a self-selected sample of 1,650 (822 boys, 828 girls) early adolescents from several middle schools in the Midwestern United States. Participants ranged in age from 9 to 16 (M = 12.35 years) at the beginning of the study. Because there were 6 months between adjacent waves and over 2 years between the fourth and fifth waves, participants were in mid-to-late adolescence by the time the study ended.
RESULTS: As predicted, hostility served as a first-stage mediator when controlling for the effects of age, sex, and race at Wave 1 and two alternate first-stage mediators (depression and anger) at Wave 2. Two abbreviated pathways that featured hostility also achieved significance: one which ran from bullying victimization to hostility to delinquent peers to bullying perpetration and one which ran from bullying victimization to hostility to pro-bullying attitudes to bullying perpetration.
CONCLUSION: One-way bullying victimization may lead to bullying perpetration is by stimulating feelings of hostility in those who have been victimized. These hostile feelings, in turn, encourage association with aggressive and delinquent peers, who serve as role models for the learning of antisocial behavior and the development of pro-bullying attitudes, both of which help transform bullying victims into bullying perpetrators. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Language: en |