Cumulative Bullying Experiences, Adolescent Behavioral and Mental Health, and Academic Achievement: An Integrative Model of Perpetration, Victimization, and Bystander Behavior

Abstract

Bullying is often ongoing during middle- and high-school. However, limited research has examined how cumulative experiences of victimization, perpetration, and bystander behavior impact adolescent behavioral and mental health and academic achievement outcomes at the end of high school. The current study used a sample of over 8000 middle- and high-school students (51% female; mean age 12.5 years) from the Rural Adaptation Project in North Carolina to investigate how cumulative experiences as a bullying victim and perpetrator over 5 years, and cumulative experiences of bystander behavior over 2 years impacted students' aggression, internalizing symptoms, academic achievement, self-esteem, and future optimism. Following multiple imputation, analysis included a Structural Equation Model with excellent model fit. Findings indicate that cumulative bullying victimization was positively associated with aggression and internalizing symptoms, and negatively associated with self-esteem and future optimism. Cumulative bullying perpetration was positively associated with aggression and negatively associated with future optimism. Cumulative negative bystander behavior was positively associated with aggression and internalizing symptoms and negatively associated with academic achievement and future optimism. Cumulative prosocial bystander behavior was positively associated with internalizing symptoms, academic achievement, self-esteem, and future optimism. This integrative model brings together bullying dynamics to provide a comprehensive picture of implications for adolescent behavioral and mental health and academic achievement.

The moderation of empathy in the longitudinal association between witnessing cyberbullying, depression, and anxiety

“…As hypothesized, being a bystander of cyberbullying was related positively to adolescents' self-report of depression and anxiety, measured one year later (Hypothesis 1). This result is consistent with previous research on bystanders of offline bullying (Evans et al, 2018;Rivers et al, 2009) and more broadly, with research on cyberbullying perpetration and victimization (Bauman et al, 2013;Bonanno et al, 2013;Mitchell et al, 2007;Wright, 2014;Ybarra et al, 2007;Yousef & Bellamy, 2015). This finding extends the current literature on the consequences of witnessing cyberbullying for bystanders.…”

“…Research on offline bullying provides a foundation for understanding the negative consequences of witnessing cyberbullying. In the research on offline bullying, Evans, Smokowski, Rose, Mercado, and Marshall (2018) found that negative bystander behavior (e.g., not intervening in bullying incidences) was associated positively with anxiety, depression, and academic difficulties among adolescents. Similar results were found by Rivers and colleagues (2009), regardless of whether adolescents were also directly involved in offline bullying behavior or victimization.…”

Relations among Poly-Bullying Victimization, Subjective Well-Being and Resilience in a Sample of Late Adolescents

“…Bullying victimization, that is both "face to face", and through the ICT, includes a wide range of serious short-term and long-term mental health problems [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. A quasi-experimental meta-analytical study showed how bullying victimization generates behavioral and emotional problems as symptoms of their psychological distress in response to the bullying experience, including internalizing symptoms such as anxiety, depression and suicidality [22].…”

Intersections Between Multiple Forms of Bias-Based Bullying Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Youth

“…Previous studies, each differing in combinations of bias-based bullying, demonstrate that experiencing multiple forms of bias-based bullying is harmful for mental health (Garnett et al 2014;Shramko et al 2018). While longterm health correlates of overlapping forms of bias-based bullying have not yet been investigated, research in related areas demonstrates that multiple types of victimization in multiple contexts (e.g., home, school, and community) and multiple forms of general bullying not based on bias are particularly harmful to healthy development (Evans et al 2014(Evans et al , 2018Turner et al 2016). Future work with LGBQ youth investigating these associations with multiple forms of bias-based bullying are needed to elaborate our understanding of the implications of these overlapping forms of bias.…”