The relationships between peer victimization, hostile attribution bias, and revenge: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

We explored possible patterns of peer victimization among middle school and high school students using latent profile analysis, and evaluated latent class differences in demographic characteristics and their associations with hostile attribution bias and revenge. We collected self-report questionnaire data from 14,271 Chinese middle school (grades 6–8) and high school (grades 9–11) students across 43 schools located in five provinces and autonomous regions. The results indicated that there were three latent classes of peer victimization with similar profile characteristics for middle school and high school students: the non/low-victimized class, the moderately victimized class, and the highly victimized class. The frequency of peer victimization was higher for students in the 8th and 10th grades than for those in the 11th grade. Boarding school students and left-behind students were more vulnerable to peer victimization. The more serious the peer victimization suffered by adolescents, the higher was their hostile attribution bias and desire for revenge.