Double trouble: The developmental process of school bully-victims

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.06.025Get rights and content

Highlights

  • This study explored and constructed the developmental process of bully-victims from both teachers' and bully-victims' perspectives.

  • A bully-victim's developmental process can be recognized by three phases: the single role, dual roles, and the reversal and termination of dual roles.

  • Relevant factors may lead bully-victims to either completely terminate their bullying and victimization experiences or transfer to a single role (i.e., bully or victim).

Abstract

Bully-victims suffer from the negative results of both bullying and victimization experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore the developmental process of bully-victims from the perspectives of both bully-victims and school teachers. For this study, 10 secondary school bully-victims and 21 teachers were invited to participate in individual interviews. Qualitative data were analyzed via the grounded theory. The results indicated that three phases can be identified: the single role, in which most bully-victims are initially victims and few are initially bullies; the dual role, in which bully-victims either continually attack more vulnerable targets or retaliate against their original bullies because of their continued victimization and incitement from family members and/or peers; and reversal and termination of the dual role, in which bully-victims terminate their bullying and/or victimization situation after certain factors emerge, such as empathic arousal, positive interventions from peers and/or adults, and factors relevant to the original bullies. The results of this study suggested that teachers and parents should closely monitor the developmental process of bully-victims to provide them with suitable interventions.

Introduction

School bullying is a malicious process by which youths are subjected to unwanted, aggressive behaviors from either another youth or a group of youths who are neither intimate partners nor siblings. These behaviors not only involve a real or perceived power imbalance but are either repeated multiple times or are highly likely to be repeated (CDC, 2016). Previous studies exploring the prevalence of school bullying in 42 countries among Asia, Europe, and America have indicated that approximately 11% of students are involved in school bullying and/or victimization (HBSC, 2016). Moreover, the Indicators of School Crime and Safety report revealed that 19%–23% of 12–18-year-old students who studied in American public schools reported being bullied (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018). Hence, it is a prevailing problem on school campuses.

Numerous studies have shown that bullying can negatively affect both the psychological and physical health of its victims. For example, victims may have substance abuse problems (Hong et al., 2014) and poor learning performance (Estevez, Murgui, & Musitu, 2009). Notably, victims also may suffer from anxiety, depression (Cornell & Mehta, 2011; Khamis, 2015; Lamarche et al., 2007), interpersonal isolation (Cardoos & Hinshaw, 2011), and low self-esteem (Robin, Toblina, Schwartza, Gormanb, & Abou-ezzeddinea, 2005), which can cause suicidal ideations and/or suicide attempts (Hong, Kral, & Sterzing, 2015). Therefore, school bullying should receive more attention from educators.

While many studies have focused on how educators assist either bullies or victims (Garandeau, Lee, & Salmivalli, 2014; Rigby, 2014), few have explored the problems of bully-victims, who are both perpetrators and victims of bullying. One previous study indicated that the prevalence of bully-victims is approximately 5.5% among Taiwanese secondary students (Chen & Cheng, 2013). Importantly, bully-victims show more problems in life adaption, interpersonal relationships, mental health, and academic performance than either bullies or victims (Copeland, Wolke, Angold, & Costello, 2013; Guerra & Hanish, 2004; Khamis, 2015; Klomek, Marrocco, Kleinman, Schonfeld, & Gould, 2007); hence, bully-victims require guidance from educators.

To help educators effectively intervene and guide bully-victims in a timely manner, researchers should give priority to exploring the developmental process of bully-victims to provide a better understanding of their context and experiences. However, existing studies have only focused on the developmental processes of either victims or bullies (Lam & Liu, 2007; Thornberg, Halldin, Blomsjo, & Peterson, 2013). Thornberg et al. (2013) identified four phases of victimization from 21 Swiss students via the grounded theory: 1. initial attacks, which include factors that trigger bullying; 2. double victimization, which includes the interactive effects of sustained externalizing and internalizing of problems during bullying; 3. bullying exit, which includes relevant factors that enable victims to escape; and 4. after-effects of bullying, which include relevant coping strategies and impacts. Lam and Liu (2007) conducted qualitative interviews with 8 bullies aged 12–17 years in Hong Kong and subsequently proposed that the developmental process of becoming a bully involved the following phases: 1. rejection, in which potential bullies understood the forms of bullying but refused to imitate these behaviors; 2. performance, in which potential bullies began to display bullying behaviors and later became bullies; 3. perpetuation, in which bullies displayed habitual bullying behaviors and adopted the identity of a bully; and 4. withdrawal, in which bullies either reduced or eliminated bullying behaviors.

To our knowledge, no previous study has attempted to examine the developmental process of bully-victims. Therefore, this study aimed to construct the emerging process of bully-victims to gain a greater understanding of this population.

Most bully-victims are initially either bullies or victims. Many studies have explored why individuals become bullies. For instance, individuals often bully others for a thrill (Burns, Maycock, Cross, & Brown, 2008; Lam & Liu, 2007; Rivers, Duncan, & Besag, 2007; Thornberg, Rosenqvist, & Johansson, 2012), material interests (Lam & Liu, 2007; Wong, Cheng, & Chen, 2013), assurance from peer groups/a sense of belonging (Burns et al., 2008; Thornberg, 2010; Thornberg et al., 2012), and/or to satisfy a need for power (Burns et al., 2008; Hamarus & Kaikkonen, 2008; Lam & Liu, 2007; Nation, Vieno, Perkins, & Santiello, 2008; Thornberg, 2010; Thornberg et al., 2012; Wong et al., 2013). Moreover, individuals' stress accumulation and less inhibitory control abilities might cause them to bully vulnerable targets to relieve stress (Lam & Liu, 2007; Thornberg et al., 2012). Chan and Wong (2015a) found that bullying behavior is regarded as collective conduct that acts as a means to maintaining group conformity, especially in the Chinese context. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reasons why individuals become bullies are quite diverse.

Regarding the formation of victims, Wong et al. (2013) noted that certain individuals are easily bullied due to personal characteristics, such as being either audacious, impulsive, moody, shy, or bossy. Chan and Wong (2015b) also found that individuals with low levels of empathy and prosocial behavior are likely to be at risk for becoming a victim at school. In addition, individuals with certain appearances, such as those with physical disabilities or those with weird appearances, may also be targeted (Frisén, Holmqvist, & Oscarsson, 2008; Olweus, 2001; Thornberg et al., 2012; Thornberg et al., 2013). When victims are continually attacked, isolated, and labeled as deviant, they will have poor interpersonal relationships with peers and find it difficult to seek assistance from others; therefore, they may find it difficult to leave the victim role (Thornberg et al., 2013; Wong et al., 2013).

The ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1994) suggests that an individual's behaviors will be affected by everything in his/her surrounding environment. Previous studies have confirmed that certain influencing factors may cause students to become either bullies or victims, including deviant peers (Kasen, Berenson, Cohen, & Johnson, 2004; Olweus, 1993), dysfunctional families (Jansen, Veenstra, Ormel, Verhulst, & Reijneveld, 2011; Thornberg et al., 2012; Vlachou, Andreou, Botsoglou, & Didaskalou, 2011), weak family attachment (Chan & Wong, 2015b), dangerous and violent neighborhoods, negative school climates, poor relationships with teachers and classmates, teachers' neglect of school bullying (Bacchini, Esposito, & Affuso, 2009; Kasen et al., 2004), and a poor sense of school belonging (Chan & Wong, 2015b). Both environmental risk factors and individual characteristics may cause individuals to become either bullies or victims and keep them in the process of either bullying others or being bullied (Bacchini et al., 2009; Swearer & Espelage, 2011).

As to the reason about why some victims fight back to original bullies, previous studies have indicated that victims' reprisals may be aroused when their negative victimization experiences are continually accumulated to a critical point and when they cannot get effective assistance from others to improve their victimization. Victims may fight back against original bullies to satisfy their needs, such as security, emotional ventilation (Lam & Liu, 2007), enhancement of self-esteem/self-image (Ball et al., 2008), and prevention of further bullying (Sekol & Farrington, 2010). To date, no reported studies have examined the reasons why victims attack other victims and then become bully-victims. However, relevant theory, such as the social information processing model (SIP), may provide interpretations of this phenomenon.

Based on the SIP model (Crick & Dodge, 1994; Reemst, Fischer, & Zwirs, 2016), a victim may become a bully-victim and then attack other victims via a five-step process. First, the victim recognizes a social situation and conducts encoding (e.g., the victim notices that he/she is continually being victimized). Second, based on schemas formed by previous experiences, the victim may interpret that everyone may despise him/her and not want to provide any assistance. Third, the victim clarifies his/her goals for facing this social situation (e.g., he/she should improve this situation). Fourth, based on the set goals, the victim then either searches existing possible responses or constructs new ones to face this social situation. Fifth, after the evaluation of these responses, outcome expectations, and self-efficacy, the victim selects an optimal response and initiates it (e.g., the victim tries to imitate bullies and to attack more vulnerable targets to satisfy his/her needs due to the ineffectiveness of previous coping strategies). Although this theory can provide hypothetical explanations about why victims become bully-victims, empirical evidence is still lacking. Therefore, the topic warrants further research.

The transactional model of stress and coping that was proposed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) stated that a coping strategy is an individual's response to stress. During their interactions with the environment, individuals can adjust their cognitions and behaviors through continuous assessment and reassessment so that they can effectively manage both the internal and external demands that exceed their personal resources and stress load. To date, few studies have explored the coping strategies that are adopted by bully-victims and the reasons for terminating their bullying/victimization experiences; therefore, we can only infer them from the coping strategies of bullies and victims.

Previous studies have indicated that victims' coping strategies can be divided into three categories: counter-aggression, including either attacking or disrupting bullies and trying to get others onto his/her side; helplessness, including crying, running away, going home in the middle of the school day, refusing to go to school, etc.; and nonchalance, including staying calm, taking a blasé attitude, etc. (Salmivalli, Karhunen, & Lagerspetz, 1996). These studies found that most victims adopt the strategy of nonchalance because they think a lack of response is more constructive. Moreover, Laura, Kris, Joel, and Leandra (2011) found that the coping strategies of school bullying victims can be divided into two categories: problem-focused, including self-defense, standing up to bullies, seeking social support to discuss anti-bullying strategies, and keeping a distance from bullies; and emotion-focused, including seeking social support, reducing tension by themselves, focusing on the positive, and self-blame. They found that “problem-focused coping strategies” are most often used by victims; among these, “seeking social support to discuss the anti-bullying strategies” is most frequently adopted by students.

Kanetsuna, Smith, and Morita (2006) also found that victims often seek assistance from peers, teachers, and parents to improve their situation. Regarding the termination of these experiences, most victims thought that transferring from original classrooms/schools to new classrooms/schools could give them the opportunity to reconstruct new self-images and interpersonal relationships, which could enable them to escape bullying (Frisén, Hasselblad, & Holmqvist, 2012; Thornberg et al., 2013).

As to the bullies' coping strategies, they often reduce stress by attacking victims when frustrated (Lam & Liu, 2007). Moreover, they often consider that retaliating against people who had hurt them is an effective coping strategy (Camodeca & Goossens, 2005). Lam also found that bullying behaviors were reduced when addressed by teachers and social workers, school punishment, and police intervention. In addition, bullies' bullying behaviors were inhibited by supportive and caring family members. Some studies have suggested that the best way to effectively terminate bullying behaviors is to decrease interactions between victims and bullies (Frisén, Hasselblad, & Holmqvist, 2012; Thornberg et al., 2013).

However, how do bully-victims cope with their bullying and/or victimization experiences? Existing studies have shown that, compared to bullies and victims, bully-victims commonly adopt the following coping strategies to deal with stress: fighting with the person who had initially provoked them, screaming or cursing at others, taking other's personal items (Olafsen & Viemerö, 2000), and either yelling or throwing objects to vent emotions and express anger (Kristensen & Smith, 2003). However, whether these strategies help with coping and/or terminating bully-victims' sufferings remains unclear. Therefore, this issue warrants future study.

The present study explored the following two research questions to construct the developmental process of bully-victims: 1. What causes the formation of bully-victims, and how is it maintained? 2. What coping strategies are adopted by the bully-victim in response to these experiences?

Per a review of the abovementioned studies, the hypotheses of this study are as follows:

First, the present study hypothesized that individuals may initially be bullied because of shared characteristics with victims, such as having an annoying personality and behaviors and/or an unusual appearance. Their accumulated experience of victimization may facilitate their backlash toward their original bullies to either reduce stress or protect themselves from further bullying. In addition, these individuals may transform from victims into bully-victims by attacking more vulnerable targets to obtain assurance from peer groups, empower themselves, enhance their self-esteem, and/or relieve stress. This study also hypothesized that, if individuals are initially bullies, they may attack others for a thrill, to obtain assurance from peer groups, and/or to satisfy their power needs. However, they may be bullied by other bullies and subsequently transform from bullies into bully-victims because of certain personality traits and/or behaviors, such as being irritated easily or inability to control emotions.

Second, because bully-victims have characteristics of both bullies and victims, this study hypothesized that bully-victims may adopt the strategy of seeking social support to cope with their victimization experiences; however, they may be influenced by their impairments in self-regulation and thus may deal with their stress by adopting aggressive external coping strategies. This study also hypothesized that, if peers and adults adopted the strategies of reprimand and support in parallel as well as decreased interactions among bully-victims, bullies, and victims, it might improve bully-victims' bullying and victimization situations.

Section snippets

Participants

This study focused on secondary school students because they are more prone to bullying behaviors (Chen & Cheng, 2013; Hanish, Kochenderfer-Ladd, Fabes, Martin, & Denning, 2004). Two self-reported global items (Olweus, 1996) as well as observations of teachers were used to find potential participants. The selected criterion for the bully-victims in this study, which was based on the standard of Solberg and Olweus (2003), was that, from two to three months prior to the present, students who had

Results

The results of this study indicated that the bully-victim developmental process can be divided into three phases: the single role, the dual role, and either reversal or termination of the dual role (Fig. 1).

Discussion

This study aimed to explore and construct the developmental process of bully-victims from both teachers' and bully-victims' perspectives by using the grounded theory method. The results revealed that a bully-victim's developmental process can be recognized by three phases: the single role, dual roles, and the reversal and termination of dual roles. The results of this study also demonstrated relevant factors that may lead bully-victims to either completely terminate their bullying and

Funding

The authors received the financial support by National Sun Yat-sen University and Kaohsiung Medical University (105-P029).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

References (73)

  • M. Birks et al.

    Grounded theory: A practical guide

    (2015)
  • U. Bronfenbrenner

    Ecological models of human development

  • S. Burns et al.

    The power of peers: Why some students bully others to conform

    Qualitative Health Research

    (2008)
  • M. Camodeca et al.

    Aggression, social cognition, anger and sadness in bullies and victims

    Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

    (2005)
  • S.L. Cardoos et al.

    Friendship as protection from peer victimization for girlswith and without ADHD

    Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

    (2011)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

    Understanding bullying

  • H.C.O. Chan et al.

    The overlap between school bullying perpetration and victimization: Assessing the psychological, familial, and school factors of Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

    Journal of Child and Family Studies

    (2015)
  • L.M. Chen et al.

    Prevalence of school bullying among secondary students in Taiwan: Measurements with and without a specific definition of bullying

    School Psychology International

    (2013)
  • W.E. Copeland et al.

    Adult psychiatric outcomes of bullying and being bullied by peers in childhood and adolescence

    JAMA Psychiatry

    (2013)
  • D.G. Cornell et al.

    Counselor confirmation of middle school student self-reports of bullying victimization

    Professional School Counseling

    (2011)
  • N.R. Crick et al.

    A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1994)
  • N.K. Denzin

    Triangulation: A case for methodological evaluation and combination

    Sociological Methods

    (1978)
  • Eklund, J., Andersson-Stråberg, T., & Hansen, E. M. (2009). “I've also experienced loss and fear”: Effects of prior...
  • A. Ellis

    Rational-emotive therapy: Research data that supports the clinical and personality hypotheses of RET and other modes of cognitive-behavior therapy

    The Counseling Psychologist

    (1977)
  • E. Estevez et al.

    Psychological adjustment in bullies and victims of school violence

    European Journal of Psychology of Education

    (2009)
  • A. Frisén et al.

    13-year-olds' perception of bullying: Definitions, reasons for victimization and experience of adults' response

    Educational Studies

    (2008)
  • A. Frisén et al.

    Adolescents' perception of bullying: Who is the victim? Who is the bully? What can be done to stop bullying?

    Adolescence

    (2012)
  • C.F. Garandeau et al.

    School bullies' intention to change behavior following teacher interventions: Effects of empathy arousal, condemning of bullying, and blaming of the perpetrator

    Prevention Science

    (2016)
  • N. Guerra et al.

    Aggressive victims, passive victims, and bullies: Developmental continuity or developmental change?

    Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

    (2004)
  • P. Hamarus et al.

    School bullying as a creator of pupil pressure

    Educational Research

    (2008)
  • L.D. Hanish et al.

    Bullying among young children: The influence of peers and teachers

  • HBSC

    Growing up unequal: gender and socioeconomic differences in young people's health and well-being (WHO publication no. 7)

  • T. Hirschi

    Causes of delinquency

    (1969)
  • S.D. Hodges et al.

    Giving birth to empathy: The effects of similar experience on empathic accuracy, empathic concern, and perceived empathy

    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

    (2010)
  • J.S. Hong et al.

    A conceptual framework for understanding the association between school bullying victimization and substance misuse

    American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

    (2014)
  • J.S. Hong et al.

    Pathways from bullying perpetration, victimization, and bully-victimization to suicidality among school-aged youth: A review of the potential mediators and a call for further investigation

    Trauma, Violence, & Abuse

    (2015)
  • Cited by (16)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text