Bullying and victimization in early adolescence: Relations to social information processing patterns

Abstract

There is a gap in the literature on the social information processing (SIP) patterns of adolescents exposed to victimization in school. Therefore, we examine the SIP patterns of young adolescents characterized by their teachers and by their own reports as victims, bullies, bullies/victims, and neither bullies nor victims. The 105 adolescents participating in this study were asked to respond to hypothetical social scenarios in which a protagonist is either rebuffed or provoked by peers. The scenarios were ambiguous in nature and thus could have been processed in different ways. Indeed, distinctive processing patterns were found for each of these groups: victims tended to avoid challenging social situations while expecting others to be purposefully hostile or ignoring; bullies tended to interpret others as purposefully hostile and stated their desire to retaliate; bullies/victims showed patterns more similar to those of the bullies than the victims; and those who were neither victims nor bullies tended to view the same challenging social situations as non hostile and more likely to end well for them. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Differences in the early stages of social information processing for adolescents involved in bullying

“…To our knowledge no other study has simultaneously addressed these early stages of SIP in regards to bullying involvement in adolescence and the different roles adopted (Pouwels, Scholte et al, 2015;Ziv et al, 2013). To our knowledge no other study has simultaneously addressed these early stages of SIP in regards to bullying involvement in adolescence and the different roles adopted (Pouwels, Scholte et al, 2015;Ziv et al, 2013).…”

“…Thus rather than bullying behavior being explained by inaccuracies in the recognition or interpretation of social information, it may be more likely explained by the way this information is used (Arsenio & Lemerise, 2001;Sutton, Smith, & Swettenham, 2001;Ziv et al, 2013). Thus rather than bullying behavior being explained by inaccuracies in the recognition or interpretation of social information, it may be more likely explained by the way this information is used (Arsenio & Lemerise, 2001;Sutton, Smith, & Swettenham, 2001;Ziv et al, 2013).…”

“…The early stages of SIP involve the encoding and interpretation of cues obtained from social situations, from which our desired goals are clarified. However those who are victimized may also show deficits in the recognition and interpretation of social events (Woods, Wolke, Nowicki, & Hall, 2009;Ziv, Leibovich, & Shechtman, 2013). According to the SIP Model, accurate processing within these initial stages is critical for implementing appropriate behavior in response to social cues.…”

Psychological processes in young bullies versus bully‐victims

“…For theory of mind skills, the evidence is inconsistent: One study found that bully-victims (age 7-8) had poorer theory of mind skills than bullies (Gasser & Keller, 2009) whereas another, longitudinal study found no differences in theory of mind skills at age 5 between children who were classified as either bully or bully-victim at age 12 (Shakoor et al, 2012). For hostile intent attributions, the evidence is inconsistent as well: One study found that bully-victims attributed more blame to hypothetical peers than bullies (Camodeca et al, 2003), whereas another study found that bullies and bully-victims (age 13-14) both expected hostile behavior from hypothetical peers (Ziv, Leibovich, & Shechtman, 2013). For happy victimizer emotions, the evidence for the distinct processes hypothesis is very limited: The two studies that addressed this question did not find that bullies had more happy victimizer emotions than bully-victims, at age 7-8 (Gasser & Keller, 2009) nor at age 12-18 (Perren, Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, Malti, & Hymel, 2012).…”

The Mediating Role of Psychological Adjustment between Peer Victimization and Social Adjustment in Adolescence

“…Most studies have used the cognitive information processing theory to explain the influence of this demeaning experience on social adjustment. According to these studies, victims exhibit cognitive processing patterns characterized by attributing hostile and harmful intentions to peers, which causes them to fear and avoid all kinds of social situations, and ultimately, develop maladaptive social anxiety (Ziv et al, 2013). Impaired emotion regulation has been also recognized as a mediator between victimization and peer social maladjustment (Schwartz and Proctor, 2000).…”