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The Effect of Bullying and Victimization on Cognitive Empathy Development During the Transition to Middle School

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Abstract

Background

Interventions aimed at reducing bullying behavior commonly target the development of empathy. Yet, few longitudinal studies have investigated how empathy levels vary with bullying and victimization over time, especially during the transition to middle school.

Objective

To that end, the purpose of the present study was to: (1) examine the naturally-occurring changes in cognitive empathy during the transition from elementary to middle school, and (2) explore the effect of bullying and victimization involvement on changes in cognitive empathy over time, and specifically during this school transition.

Methods

Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine growth trajectories in empathy over time and the effects of bullying involvement on this growth among a sample of 431 students (52 % female, 52 % Latino, 10.18 years old at baseline), using data collected during the spring semester of the 4th grade, the fall and spring semesters of 5th grade, and the spring semester of 6th grade.

Results

Cognitive empathy decreased over time, and a linear trajectory was the best fitting shape for these data. Bullying and victimization were both associated with lower levels of cognitive empathy throughout the study. However, the effect of victimization was small and it became non-significant when both were added to the model. Several notable participant-related differences were found.

Conclusions

These findings point to the potential to improve cognitive empathy skills and reduce involvement in bullying via preventive interventions prior to the transition from elementary to middle school to assist youth in making a more successful transition.

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Notes

  1. The measure of cognitive empathy was not collected at the first measurement wave during the spring of fourth grade.

  2. The ordinal alpha coefficient is a version of the Cronbach’s alpha reliability index that is based on a polychoric correlation matrix as opposed to the standard Pearson correlation matrix, which is more appropriate for ordinal items.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas, 1545 Lilac Lane, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Anne Williford

  2. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Aaron J. Boulton

  3. College of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Shandra S. Forrest-Bank

  4. Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Kimberly A. Bender & Jeffrey M. Jenson

  5. Northpointe, Inc., Denver, CO, USA

    William A. Dieterich

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  1. Anne Williford
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  2. Aaron J. Boulton
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  3. Shandra S. Forrest-Bank
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  4. Kimberly A. Bender
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  5. William A. Dieterich
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  6. Jeffrey M. Jenson
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Correspondence to Anne Williford.

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Williford, A., Boulton, A.J., Forrest-Bank, S.S. et al. The Effect of Bullying and Victimization on Cognitive Empathy Development During the Transition to Middle School. Child Youth Care Forum 45, 525–541 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-015-9343-9

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