Joint Trajectories of Bullying Victimization and Perpetration from Grade 5 to Grade 12
摘要
Although our knowledge about bullying research has grown tremendously throughout the years, there remains limited research on the dynamic interplay between bullying victimization and perpetration across several years of development. To address this knowledge gap, the joint trajectories of bullying victimization and perpetration were modeled in a longitudinal community sample (n = 701) of students assessed yearly across eight years of development, from Grade 5 (Age 10-11) to Grade 12 (Age 17-18). Using a latent class growth analysis, a three-class solution was selected for bullying victimization. Most participants were reflected in a trajectory of low decreasing bullying victimization (74%), followed by moderate stable trajectory of bullying victimization (23%), and a final group following a high stable trajectory of bullying victimization (3%). A two-class solution was selected for bullying perpetration. Most participants were reflected in the low stable bullying perpetration group (83%) and a small group followed a moderate increasing/decreasing trajectory of bullying perpetration (16.4%). Dual trajectory models revealed distinct subgroups of individuals involved in bullying either as targets, perpetrators, or bully-victims. The conditional probabilities results suggest that highly victimized youth were more likely to be involved in perpetration while remaining targets (i.e., target to bully-victim), whereas youth moderately victimized were more likely to be uninvolved in bullying perpetration. Sex differences within joint trajectory groups showed significantly more boys in the low decreasing victimization and moderate increasing/decreasing perpetration group than girls (9.4% boys vs. 5.4% girls). These developmental nuances should be considered to support school and clinical prevention and intervention efforts.