Characteristics of Students Identified as Bullies, Victims, and Bully-Victims

• Main Author: Wilke, Lisa A.
• Language: EN
• Published: Saint Mary's University of Minnesota 2017
• Subjects: Education|Educational psychology
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196107

<p> Using data from the Minnesota Student Survey of over 120,000 eighth, ninth, and eleventh grade students across the state, this study examined the characteristics of students who identified themselves as engaging in bullying behavior (bully only), being the target of bullying (victim only), or both engaging in and being the target of bullying (bully-victims). Scores for these three bully/victim groups were compared to the general student population on fourteen characteristics: perception of safety, perceived fairness, perception of care, family communication, family inclusiveness, internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, inattentiveness, coping skills, positive self-evaluation, positive feelings toward others, parent abuse, sexual abuse, and family substance abuse. All categories of bullies and victims reported adverse scores on these measures, scoring on average about one-half standard deviation below the mean of all Minnesota students. Bullies and victims were similar on eight of the fourteen measures. Bully-victims consistently reported lower scores compared to the bully only and victim only groups. Gender differences were found with female students reporting more hardship on half of the investigated characteristics; however, gender did not interact with bully/victim status. These findings have important implications for understanding the psychological, behavioral, and physical space which both bullies and victims occupy.</p>