Exploring Bullying, Partner Violence, and Social Information Processing

Previous research has related childhood experiences with violence to adulthood intimate partner violence (IPV). Witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) between parents has been associated with bullying involvement, while other research on the psychological mechanisms involved has found that differences in social cognition affect how aggressive individuals interpret and may respond violently to social cues. To identify possible impacts of childhood experiences of aggression on adult relationship problems, the current study of 84 emerging adults tested hypotheses that (a) witnessing parental IPV in adolescence would predict bullying in adolescence, (b) bullying in adolescence would predict IPV in young adulthood, (c) bullying in adolescence would predict adulthood deficits in social information processing, particularly hostile attribution biases, and (d) bullying in adolescence would predict adulthood interpersonal problems. This study used linear and hierarchical regression analyses to test these hypotheses and found that witnessing parental IPV predicted the frequency of bullying victimization overall and relational bullying victimization specifically, and the frequency of bullying perpetration predicted hostile attributional biases in adulthood. Some aspects of bullying victimization were negatively associated with being unassertive, contrary to expectations. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature demonstrating the need for early intervention strategies designed to identify children and adolescents who are vulnerable to experiences with aggression, both at present and in the future.