Social cognition and bullying: Social inadequacy or skilled manipulation?

Sutton, Jeannette; Smith, Peter K.; Swettenham, J

doi:10.1348/026151099165384

Cited by 536 publications

(515 citation statements)

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“…Victims (Woods et al 2009) and those exhibiting symptoms of depression (Beck 2008;Evans et al 2005) have been shown to have numerous biases in cognitive processing, e.g., deeper encoding of negative information in memory or interpretation of ambiguous material as negative (Dearing and Gotlib 2009;Hertel and Brozovich 2010). Thus being victimized, in particular if chronic or severe, may work itself into the brain altering neuro-circuitry and social cognition (Gini 2006;Sutton et al 1999;Teicher et al 2010) and stress response (Ouellet-Morin et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Victimization in Childhood and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Zwierzynska

Wolke

Lereya

2012

J Abnorm Child Psychol

226

169

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Traumatic childhood experiences have been found to predict later internalizing problems. This prospective longitudinal study investigated whether repeated and intentional harm doing by peers (peer victimization) in childhood predicts internalizing symptoms in early adolescence. 3692 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), as well as their mothers and teachers, reported on bullying in childhood (7-10 years) and internalizing problems in early adolescence (11-14 years). Controlling for prior psychopathology, family adversity, gender and IQ, being a victim of bullying was associated with higher overall scores, as well as increased odds of scoring in the severe range (>90 th percentile) for emotional and depression symptoms. Victims were also more likely to show persistent depression symptoms over a 2-year period. These associations were found independent of whether mothers, teachers or the children reported on bullying. It is concluded that peer victimization in childhood is a precursor of both short-lived and persistent internalizing symptoms, underlining the importance of environmental factors such as peer relationships in the etiology of internalizing problems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Victimization in Childhood and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Zwierzynska

Wolke

Lereya

2012

J Abnorm Child Psychol

226

169

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“…These "bully victims" have been characterized as hyperactive, impulsive, and as experiencing more peer rejection, more academic difficulties, and more stressful and harsh home environments (see Schwartz, Proctor, & Chien, 2001), but represent only a small portion (1% to 12%) of students (Dulmus et al, 2006;Nansel et al, 2001;Solberg & Olweus, 2003;Spriggs, Iannotti, Nansel, & Haynie, 2007). Over the past four decades, research has also shown that many bullies are socially intelligent (Björkqvist, Österman, & Kaukiainen, 2000;Sutton, Smith, & Swettenham, 1999a, 1999b and enjoy considerable status in the peer group (Vaillancourt et al, 2003), leading to distinctions between socially marginalized and socially integrated bullies (Farmer et al, 2010). Adults may be less able to recognize bullying perpetrated by students who appear to be socially competent, wellfunctioning individuals.…”

Section: Different Types Of Bulliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction.

Hymel¹,

Swearer²

2015

American Psychologist

460

279

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This article provides an introductory overview of findings from the past 40 years of research on bullying among school-aged children and youth. Research on definitional and assessment issues in studying bullying and victimization is reviewed, and data on prevalence rates, stability, and forms of bullying behavior are summarized, setting the stage for the 5 articles that comprise this American Psychologist special issue on bullying and victimization. These articles address bullying, victimization, psychological sequela and consequences, ethical, legal, and theoretical issues facing educators, researchers, and practitioners, and effective prevention and intervention efforts. The goal of this special issue is to provide psychologists with a comprehensive review that documents our current understanding of the complexity of bullying among school-aged youth and directions for future research and intervention efforts.

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“…The sole exception might be the putative link between theory of mind and proactive aggression, which might be stronger for boys than for girls. This expectation was based on the fact that theory of mind was positively related to bullying behavior only in boys but not girls in one study (Caravita et al 2010), although gender-specific correlations were not reported in another study (Sutton et al 1999). …”

Section: Gender Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children with high theory of mind skills may deliberately choose aggressive behavior in some social situations because they expect it to be effective for achieving personal gains. Some, albeit indirect evidence in support of this notion comes from findings that theory of mind is positively related to bullying behavior (Caravita et al 2010;Sutton et al 1999) and to children's ability to lie in a consistent fashion (Talwar et al 2007). To date, however, no study has directly examined the possibility of a differential relation of theory of mind with reactive and proactive aggression, respectively.…”

Section: Theory Of Mindmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In line with this notion, aggressive-defiant behavior has been negatively associated with theory of mind skills in preschoolers and kindergarten children (Capage and Watson 2001). However, in studies examining general conduct disorder symptoms, no relation with theory of mind was observed (Happé and Frith 1996;Sutton et al 2000), and at least two studies found a positive association with bullying behavior in elementary school-aged children (Caravita et al 2010;Sutton et al 1999). The apparently mixed findings with respect to the relation between theory of mind and aggression may stem from the diversity of behavioral outcomes studied, ranging from aggressive-defiant behavior to conduct disorder and bullying.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

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Interactive Links Between Theory of Mind, Peer Victimization, and Reactive and Proactive Aggression

Renouf

Brendgen

Séguin

et al. 2010

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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This study investigated the relation between theory of mind and reactive and proactive aggression, respectively, as well as the moderating role of peer victimization in this context. The 574 participants were drawn from a longitudinal study of twins. Theory of mind was assessed before school entry, when participants were 5 years old. Reactive and proactive aggression as well as peer victimization were assessed a year later in kindergarten. Results from multilevel regression CIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscriptanalyses revealed that low theory of mind was related to a high level of reactive aggression, but only in children who experienced average to high levels of peer victimization. In contrast, a high theory of mind was related to a high level of proactive aggression. Again, this relation was especially pronounced in children who experienced high levels of peer victimization. These findings challenge the social skills deficit view of aggression and provide support for a multidimensional perspective of aggressive behavior. KeywordsTheory of mind; Reactive and proactive aggression; Peer victimizationIn the study of aggressive behavior a fundamental distinction is made between reactive aggression and proactive aggression, which refer to two different underlying functions of aggression (Day, Bream and Paul 1992;Dodge and Coie 1987;Schwartz et al. 1998).Reactive aggression is defined as a retaliatory response to a real or perceived threat or provocation. It is associated with the frustration theory of aggression (Berkowitz 1989) and is accompanied by an activation of the autonomous system (Hubbard et al. 2002). In contrast, proactive aggression is considered a non-provoked behavior that is motivated by the desire for personal gains or the domination of others (Vitaro and Brendgen 2005). As an organized and planned behavior, proactive aggression is related to the anticipation of a positive outcome of the aggressive behavior (Dodge et al. 1997). Although studies usually report a high correlation between reactive and proactive aggression (mean r=0.68; Card and Little 2006), factor analyses and meta-analyses provide clear evidence for the validity of the distinction between the two functions of aggression (Card and Little 2006;Crick and Dodge 1996;McAuliffe et al. 2007;Poulin and Boivin 2000;Vitaro et al. 1998). As will be discussed in more detail below, evidence also suggests that these two functions of aggressive behavior are differentially related to social cognitive skills, particularly with respect to the decoding of social stimuli (Crick and Dodge 1996;Dodge et al. 1997;Dodge and Coie 1987;Hubbard et al. 2001;Schippel et al. 2003). The present study examines a specific and as yet unstudied aspect of decoding-related social cognitive skills, namely theory of mind, in relation to proactive and reactive aggression. The Role of Theory of Mind in Social BehaviorTheory of mind implies the capacity to attribute mental states to the self and to others in order to explain and predic...

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Social cognition and bullying: Social inadequacy or skilled manipulation?

Cited by 536 publications

References 48 publications

Peer Victimization in Childhood and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Peer Victimization in Childhood and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction.

Interactive Links Between Theory of Mind, Peer Victimization, and Reactive and Proactive Aggression

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