Psychological and background correlates of bullying in adolescent residential care

Abstract

This research examined psychological and background correlates of bullying in adolescent residential care. Young people aged 11-21 (N ¼ 601) from 22 residential institutions in Croatia completed an anonymous self-reported bullying questionnaire, the Basic Empathy Scale, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and the Big Five Personality Inventory.Findings: The results demonstrated that both male and female bullies tend to be disagreeable, careless, neurotic, likely to hold attitudes approving of bullying, and likely to bully others in school. Male bullies also tend to be extraverted, lacking in affective empathy, tend to have a history of bullying during their earlier placements, and tend to have been institutionalised for problematic behaviour. It is concluded that bullying is more persistent for males and that psychological and personality factors play a greater role in male bullying than in female bullying. However, both male and female bullies had commonly been school bullies.Applications: Bullying in care might be mitigated by: a) avoiding accommodating residents who are prone to victimisation together with older, more experienced residents who manifest antisocial behaviour; b) programmes aimed at changing attitudes approving of bullying; c) techniques for controlling the impulsivity of bullies; and d) empathy enhancement programmes. However, longitudinal research on bullying is needed.

Personal characteristics of bullying victims in residential care for youth

“…This fits well with previous longitudinal school-based research discussed earlier that found the continuity of victimisation to be male specific. In line with the results concerning the stability of female bullying in care described in Sekol and Farrington (2015), the results of the present study suggest that not only female bullying, but also female victimisation, may be more connected with prevailing social relationships within facilities than with personal characteristics. Kumpulainen et al (1999) explain a lack of continuity over time in victimisation amongst girls but not amongst boys by stereotypes about the vulnerable nature of the female gender, which might make staff interfere more readily when they see females being bullied than when they see males being bullied.…”

“…Since then, there have been six studies published, five on bullying per se (Sekol, 2015;Sekol and Farrington, 2009, 2013, 2015 and one on peer violence (Sekol, 2013). This residential care research has focused on four main areas: describing the nature and prevalence of peer violence (Barter et al, 2004) and bullying (Sekol and Farrington, 2009); examining the context of peer violence and bullying both qualitatively (Barter et al, 2004;Sekol, 2013) and quantitatively (Sekol, 2015); establishing an adequate methodology for studying bullying in residential care (Sekol and Farrington, 2009, 2013; and identifying some personal characteristics of residential care bullies (Sekol and Farrington, 2015).…”

“…personality traits, self-esteem, empathy and attitudes towards bullying) and certain background variables (i.e. age, a previous history of bullying and the length of time institutionalised) have been examined (Sekol and Farrington, 2015). It has been found that, after controlling for other individual characteristics, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness and believing that victims deserve to be bullied independently predicted bullying by males, while attitudes approving of bullying predicted female bullying.…”

“…Similarly, a history of being a school bully, a longer time spent in the facility and low agreeableness and conscientiousness predicted female bullying independently of all psychological and other background variables. Based on these findings, important policy implications have been drawn, especially those targeting bullies' attitudes supportive of bullying and their disagreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism (for details on predictors of bullying in care and related policy implications see Sekol and Farrington, 2015).…”

The Association between Violent Behavior, Academic Performance, and Physical Activity According to Gender in Scholars

“…Today, not only does this take place in person, but cyber-bullying also appears as another element to be considered. In fact, the study and development of violence in infants and adolescents are topics of priority interest in the scientific context [7][8][9][10].…”