From Victims to Perpetrators of Bullying: The Role of Irrational Cognitions, Externalizing Problems, and Parental Attachment

Abstract

The transition from bullying victimization to bullying perpetration is well documented in the literature. However, the mechanisms linking bullying victimization to perpetration are not fully understood. The main aim of the current study was to conduct a preliminary research investigating the indirect effects of youths bullying victimization on bullying perpetration through irrational cognitions and externalizing problems. The second aim of the study was to explore the moderating role of the type of parental attachment (secure vs. insecure) in the proposed model in explaining the association of bullying victimization and bullying perpetration. Data were collected from 269 adolescents (11-15 years; M = 11.98, SD = .68), enrolled in middle public schools from Romania. Path analysis and moderated path analysis were conducted to explore the direct and indirect effects and moderating effects, respectively. Study findings indicate that bullying victimization was indirectly related to bullying perpetration separately through youths’ irrational cognition as well as through externalizing problems. The serial indirect pathway from victimization to perpetration through irrational cognitions leading further to externalizing problems was also significant. However, the type of attachment that adolescents reported having toward their parents failed to moderate the indirect pathways, since all the interaction terms were nonsignificant. These findings advance the field prevention and intervention by identifying irrational cognitions and externalizing problems as important targets that anti-bullying programs should address to stop the transition from victims of bullying to perpetrators.

Bullying begets bullying: A contagion model of bullying in Chinese adolescents

“…Peer bullying may also cause participants to experience a range of negative emotions (e.g., helplessness, anxiety, anger and fear) that need be regulated using self-control resources (Walters, 2020). Thus, previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to bullying leads to reduced attention and willpower (Rosen et al, 2016), irrational cognition (Balan et al, 2022), morning tiredness and sleeping difficulty (Due et al, 2005), and physical endurance (Giboin & Wolff, 2019) that are characteristic of ego depletion.…”

“…Especially, the meta‐analysis of Walters (2021) reported a large concurrent correlation ( r = 0.40) and a moderate longitudinal correlation ( r = 0.20) between bullying victimization and perpetration. Previous studies have shown that bullying victims may turn into bullying perpetrators because of increased moral disengagement (Falla et al, 2022), feelings of hostility, anger and depression (Walters, 2020), and irrational cognition (Balan et al, 2022; Smokowski & Evans, 2019). These studies suggest that bullying victims are very likely to bully others and bullying is like a contagious disease that can spread from bullies to victims.…”

“…Bullying participants need to appraise the situation in which bullying occurs and its relevance and potential impact, and then select the most appropriate response among multiple possible choices (Rosen et al, 2016). In this case, a large amount of attentional and cognitive resources would be allocated to appraise the situation, suppress unwanted thoughts, and formulate appropriate responses (Balan et al, 2022; Falla et al, 2022), leading to ego depletion and therefore leaving less self‐control resources for subsequent behaviors (Troll et al, 2023). The bullying episode would be more depleting when the bully is a friend of the participant because of the conflict between peer pressure and social norms (Prinstein & Giletta, 2021).…”