Bullies, victims, and bully‐victims: a longitudinal examination of the effects of bullying‐victimization experiences on youth well‐being

Pages97-102
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/17596591111132918
Date16 May 2011
Published date16 May 2011
AuthorMetin Özdemir,Håkan Stattin
Subject MatterHealth & social care,Sociology
Bullies, victims, and bully-victims:
a longitudinal examination of the effects
of bullying-victimization experiences
on youth well-being
Metin O
¨zdemir and Ha
˚kan Stattin
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how children’s involvement in bullying (as bullies,
victims and bully-victims) is related to longer term levels of various internalizing problems such as
depression and self-harm.
Design/methodology/approach – A prospective longitudinal design was used based on data from the
Swedish Seven Schools Longitudinal Study. The authors also examined whether bullying/victimization
experiences predict changes in internalizing problems.
Findings – Results vary depending on children’s participation in bullying behavior as bullies, victims or
bully-victims.
Originality/value – Overall, the paper’s findings highlight the importance of uniqueness of different
bullying/victimization experiences. This study showed that the bully-victims, followed by the victimized
group, were more at risk for displaying internalizing problems. Bullies showed neither higher
internalizing problems nor increases over time in symptom levels compared to the youths who were
neither bullies nor victims.
Keywords Sweden, Bullying, Schools, Children, Depression
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Existing research supports that children involved in school bullying (as bullies, victims or
bully-victims) may exhibit internalizing and externalizing problems (Rigby, 2003). This paper
reports on findings regarding the long-term association of school bullying (perpetration and
victimization) with depression, self-esteem, self-harm, and failure anticipation. Results are
based on Seven Schools, an ongoing longitudinal study conducted in a medium-size city
located in centralSweden.
Methods
Participants
This report is based on an ongoing longitudinal study conducted in a medium-size city
(population about 130,000) located in central Sweden. The original study surveyed all
seventh to ninth grade students in seven public schools every year for four years.
The participating schools were selected from different neighborhoods to represent the
overall socio-demographic characteristics of the city. The current analyses included pupils
(n¼508, 53.2 percent girls at T1; n¼473, 53.1 percent girls at T2; n¼463, 53.3 percent
girls at T3) who participated in the first wave of the study and were followed over three years
from 2006 to 2009 every spring semester. The target sample at the first data collection was
DOI 10.1108/17596591111132918 VOL.3 NO. 2 2011, pp. 97-102,QEmerald Group PublishingLimited, ISSN 1759-6599
j
JOURNALOF AGGRESSION, CONFLICTAND PEACE RESEARCH
j
PAGE 97
Metin O
¨zdemir and
Ha
˚kan Stattin are based
at the Center for
Developmental Research
(CDR), Academy of Law,
Psychology and Social
Work O
¨rebro University,
O
¨rebro, Sweden.

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