Models are presented describing how bullying others and being bullied are related to proactive and reactive aggressiveness. This was investigated among 1801 pupils in Norwegian schools at the end of grade five and among 2083 pupils at the end of grade eight. Pupils in the two samples were approximately 11 and 14 years old, respectively. The procedure of structural equation modeling with latent variables was followed using LISREL 8.30 to estimate the parameters. Analyses were conducted for boys and girls separately at fifth and eighth grades. Support for the assumptions of factor solution and factorial invariance of the concepts across gender and age was obtained independently from estimating structural parameters. Both proactive and reactive aggressiveness were related to bullying others and to being bullied at Level 5. Among the older pupils, there was a strong relationship between proactive aggressiveness and bullying others, while reactive aggressiveness was much more weakly related to bullying others. Being bullied, on the other hand, was only weakly related to proactive and reactive aggressiveness among the older pupils. Age was therefore an important factor in determining how proactive and reactive aggressiveness were related to bullying. When pupil gender is concerned, power-related proactive aggressiveness in predicting bullying was a more important factor for boys, while affiliation-related proactive aggressiveness was a more powerful factor for girls. Aggr. Behav. 27:446-462, 2001.

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This study compares levels of bullying others, victimization, and aggressiveness in native Norwegian and immigrant adolescents living in Norway and shows how bullying is related to proactive and reactive aggressiveness. The sample consists of 2,938 native Norwegians (1,521 girls, 1,417 boys) and 189 immigrant adolescents (97 girls, 92 boys) in school grades 8, 9, and 10. Data were collected via self-assessments. Structural equation models were conducted separately for girls and boys in both groups. The levels of victimization, reactive and proactive aggressiveness were the same for both native Norwegians and immigrant adolescents but there was a significant difference in the levels of bullying others. Compared with the native Norwegians, immigrant adolescents were found to be at higher risk of bullying others. Structural models revealed significantly stronger relations between affiliation-related proactive aggressiveness and bullying others in immigrant boys compared with the other groups. This indicates that the wish for affiliation is an important mechanism of bullying others in immigrant boys. We also suggest further research and the practical importance of the findings for prevention of targeting immigrant adolescents.

In Norwegian primary and secondary schools, approximately 5% of the pupils are bullied persistently, and about the same percentage of the pupils bully regularly. Three national programs to counteract bullying in schools are described and discussed. The first one was conducted in 1983, and the second one in 1996. A third, very comprehensive 3‐year program is decided and will be started about 2000. The content of these national programs has changed gradually, from being rather bullying and intervention focused to being more preventive and comprehensive. Improvement of the school as an organisation and improved, general classroom management are two central aspects in the recent approach, which is supposed to have multiple effects. Also, the support system for the schools to implement and maintain a national program has developed, and it includes researchers, personnel from Educational Psychological School Services (EPSS) and headteachers in the forthcoming program. Research, which has promoted these changes in content and support system, is discussed. Aggr. Behav. 26:135–143, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.