Affiliation:
1. INVEST Research Flagship Center University of Turku Turku Finland
2. Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands
3. Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology University of Vienna Vienna Austria
4. Department of Psychology and Speech‐Language Pathology University of Turku Turku Finland
5. Shandong Normal University Jinan China
Abstract
AbstractWe identified different types of adolescent bullying perpetrators and nonbullies based on peer‐reported bullying, victimization, and peer status (popularity, likeability, and rejection) and examined differences between bully subtypes in typical forms of bullying perpetrated. Moreover, we studied how bully subtypes differed from nonbullies with varying levels of victimization and peer status in academic and psychosocial adjustment. The study utilizes data from 10,689 adolescents (48.3% boys, mean age 14.7 years). Latent profile analysis identified three distinct subgroups of bullies: popular‐liked bullies (13.5%), popular‐rejected bully‐victims (5.8%), and bully‐victims (6.9%), and four groups on nonbullies. High‐status bullies (popular‐liked and popular‐rejected) resembled nonbullies in many ways and had even lower social anxiety, whereas bully‐victims were the most maladjusted group. Overall, popularity seems to protect adolescents from social anxiety, and victimization is related to internalizing problems. Results suggest that bullying, victimization, and peer status can be used to identify distinct subtypes of bullies.
Funder
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development