Psychosocial and Friendship Characteristics of Bully/Victim Subgroups in Korean Primary School Children

Abstract

This study investigated psychosocial and friendship characteristics of Korean children who engaged in bully/victim subgroups among their peer groups. The participants were 605 elementary school students in Bucheon City, Korea. The participants completed a peer nomination inventory as well as loneliness and social anxiety scales. Friendship quality was measured by self-reports. Significant differences in psychosocial characteristics were found among the bully/ victim subgroups and these differences were generally consistent with those in Western cultures. Moreover, children of the same bully/victim subgroups tend to befriend each other. Aggressive, passive victims and bullies were the same as normative contrasts with respect to conflict resolution and closeness/security, however, passive victims did not consider their friends as a significant source of help.

Stability and Change in Patterns of Peer Victimization and Aggression during Adolescence

“…Prior research supports the finding that youth experiencing elevated symptoms of anxiety were more likely to be aggressive-victims or nonaggressive-victims (e.g., Shin, 2010). We also found support for class differences in depression in our univariate model consistent with our hypothesis and with previous research suggesting that aggressive-victims and nonaggressive victims experience PEER VICTIMIZATION AND AGGRESSION IN ADOLESCENCE elevated symptoms of depression (e.g., Toblin et al, 2005).…”

“…Although support was found for this general pattern, the characteristics of one of the four classes differed from what we hypothesized. Based on prior work (e.g., Schwartz, 2000;Shin, 2010) we had hypothesized a passive-victims class. In contrast, we found support for a class of adolescents who reported a high probability of experiencing victimization and a moderate probability of engaging in physical aggression.…”

“…This disorganized response style contributes to further victimization, peer rejection, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Schwartz et al, 2001). Although there is evidence of similar levels of internalizing difficulties among aggressive and nonaggressive ictims (e.g., Shin, 2010;Toblin et al, 2005), the general pattern of findings suggests that aggressivevictims experience higher levels of internalizing behavior problems. They also typically experience higher levels of emotion dysregulation compared to their peers (Schwartz et al, 2001), with more limited evidence suggesting similar emotion regulation deficits among nonvictimized aggressors (e.g., Garner & Hinton, 2010).…”

Bully/victim Profiles’ differential risk for worsening peer acceptance: The role of friendship

“…Studies that focus on peer acceptance among bully/victim profiles of American, Korean, and Dutch samples of youth yield evidence that suggests that bullies are more preferred and less rejected than bully-victims (Juvonen et al, 2003; Shin, 2010; Veenstra et al, 2005). Peer acceptance among victims versus bully-victims and bullies, however, is less clear.…”

Mediation of school bonding and peer norms on the reciprocal effects of friend victimization and problem behavior

“…That is, children with a tendency towards antisocial behaviour select into peer relationships with other antisocial children, and these relationships with antisocial peers lead to increases in problem behaviour (Laird et al, 1999). Among Korean school children who were classified by their involvement in peer victimization (passive victim, aggressive victim, bullies, and normative contrasts), children tended to befriend others within their same subgroup (Shin, 2010). Among Taiwanese students, reciprocal peer nominations of friendship were found between aggressors and victims in 8% of relational victimization incidents, and 12% of physical victimization incidents (Wei & Jonson-Reid, 2011).…”