Traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment: A longitudinal assessment of risk and protective factors

Abstract

Adolescents engage in bullying and sexual harassment perpetration both in-person and online. Yet, little is known about the overlap of traditional (in-person) and cyber bullying and sexual harassment perpetration. The present study assessed the co-occurrence of these forms of aggression in high school and identified middle school predictors based on participants' perceptions of factors across the social ecology. Racially diverse middle and high school students (n = 3549) were surveyed over four time points from Spring 2008 to Spring 2013. A latent class analysis was used to identify classes of individuals according to endorsement of traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment items in high school. Four classes were identified: (1) high all, consisting of traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment perpetration (n = 227); (2) traditional bullying perpetration (n = 604); (3) traditional and cyber bullying perpetration (n = 450); and (4) low all (n = 1,261). Students who reported high levels of anger, self-esteem, empathy, pornographic exposure, and traditional masculinity (individual level), lower levels of social support and parental monitoring (relational level), and higher levels of school belonging (community level) had increased odds of being in the high all class when compared to the other classes. Given the co-occurrence of traditional and cyber bullying and sexual harassment, prevention programming that addresses both forms of aggression across traditional and online contexts may be beneficial. This study alsosuggests the importance of comprehensive prevention efforts that incorporate approaches at the different ecological levels, such as teaching adolescents healthy emotional and interpersonal skills, and engaging parents in prevention. K E Y W O R D Sbullying, cyberbullying, protective factors, risk factors, sexual harassment

The relationship between maladaptive personality functioning and problematic technology use in adolescence: A cluster analysis approach

“…Furthermore, investigating how adolescents with moderate or high levels of antagonism use technologies would help prevent offensive and aggressive behaviors towards others. In fact, both the problematic use of technologies and hostility/aggression were predictors of direct and indirect violence in longitudinal studies (Gamez‐Guadix, Borrajo & Almendros, 2016; Leemis, Espelage, Basile, Mercer Kollar & Davis, 2019; Tang & Fox, 2016). This study has some limitations that should be addressed.…”

I’m respectful. Why don’t they like me? Evaluator and gender effects of showing respect and children’s social competence

“…In other words, if children do not coordinate self‐ and peer evaluations, high self‐evaluation of showing respect may be associated with high aggression and low group‐level social competence. One limitation of the threatened ego hypotheses is that it focuses on measuring discrepancies (e.g., David & Kistner, ) rather than coordination among multiple evaluators, as has been the focus of many studies (Chang, ; Leemis, Espelage, Basile, Kollar, & Davis, ) or experimental manipulations (Sandstrom & Herlan, ). For example, in a recent longitudinal study Leemis and colleagues () found high self‐esteem and a sense of belonging increased the risk for traditional bullying in high school.…”

“…One limitation of the threatened ego hypotheses is that it focuses on measuring discrepancies (e.g., David & Kistner, ) rather than coordination among multiple evaluators, as has been the focus of many studies (Chang, ; Leemis, Espelage, Basile, Kollar, & Davis, ) or experimental manipulations (Sandstrom & Herlan, ). For example, in a recent longitudinal study Leemis and colleagues () found high self‐esteem and a sense of belonging increased the risk for traditional bullying in high school. A potential explanation they put forward is that bullies sometimes overestimate their peer acceptance and their high self‐esteem may lead to aggression if another person or a particular situation disagrees with their self‐esteem.…”

Profiles of Risk and Protection for Violence and Bullying Perpetration Among Adolescent Boys

“…Using a person‐centered approach is important to identify heterogeneity in response strategies and explore intraindividual variation in students' responses . To our knowledge, only 2 studies used a person‐centered approach to examine profiles of risk and protective factors among youth involved in bullying . However, this research did not focus on physical violence or bullying perpetration specifically among males, the population most likely to engage in these behaviors.…”