Influence of Personality Traits and Its Interaction with the Phenomenon of Bullying: Multi-Centre Descriptive Study

Child maltreatment predicts bullying/victimization through personality solidification: A weekly diary study

BACKGROUND

Bullying among adolescents is a significant public health concern worldwide. While child maltreatment (CM) is a known risk factor, few studies explore whether abused adolescents become bullies or victims and how CM affects day-to-day bullying/victimization. Existing research often uses cross-sectional and longitudinal designs with long intervals, failing to capture the dynamic nature of adolescence and bullying behaviors.

OBJECTIVE

Based on personality solidification theory, the study used a weekly diary method to examine the relationship between adolescents' CM and weekly bullying/victimization, as well as the mediating mechanisms of the Big Five personality traits.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

452 students (167 girls, Mage = 12.90, SDage = 0.48) from a junior high school in southern China participated in a 7-week diary study.

METHODS

After participants finished all questionnaires, multilevel models were constructed to analyze weekly diary data.

RESULTS

The findings indicated that CM positively predicted adolescents' weekly bullying/victimization, both directly and indirectly, through personality traits. Specifically, CM predicted weekly bullying through openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, while it also forecasted weekly victimization through neuroticism.

CONCLUSIONS

CM had long-term adverse effects on adolescents' day-to-day bullying and victimization through the solidification of personality, which may provide significant theoretical and empirical foundations for the prevention of bullying in schools.

Gene-environment interaction study on the polygenic risk score for neuroticism, childhood adversity, and parental bonding

The present study examines whether neuroticism is predicted by genetic vulnerability, summarized as polygenic risk score for neuroticism (PRSN), in interaction with bullying, parental bonding, and childhood adversity. Data were derived from a general population adolescent and young adult twin cohort. The final sample consisted of 202 monozygotic and 436 dizygotic twins and 319 twin pairs. The Short Eysenck Personality questionnaire was used to measure neuroticism. PRSN was trained on the results from the Genetics of Personality Consortium (GPC) and United Kingdom Biobank (UKB) cohorts, yielding two different PRSN. Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to analyze the main and interacting associations of PRSN, childhood adversity, bullying, and parental bonding style with neuroticism. We found no evidence of gene-environment correlation. PRSN thresholds of .005 and .2 were chosen, based on GPC and UKB datasets, respectively. After correction for confounders, all the individual variables were associated with the expression of neuroticism: both PRSN from GPC and UKB, childhood adversity, maternal bonding, paternal bonding, and bullying in primary school and secondary school. However, the results indicated no evidence for gene-environment interaction in this cohort. These results suggest that genetic vulnerability on the one hand and negative life events (childhood adversity and bullying) and positive life events (optimal parental bonding) on the other represent noninteracting pathways to neuroticism.

Perception of Bullying in Early Childhood Education in Spain: Pre-School Teachers vs. Psychologists

In this work, quantitative research is carried out on the perceptions of early childhood education teachers and child psychologists about the incidence of bullying behaviors in early childhood education (3 to 6 years old) and their knowledge and experience in this regard. For this purpose, two questionnaires were used, each of them oriented to one of the two groups of professionals analyzed, whose answers were subjected to statistical analysis. As for results, it has been obtained that early childhood education teachers express having received deficient training in school bullying and have little experience in its detection and treatment. Furthermore, the teachers’ conception of bullying occurring in their own schools is not realistic and differs from the knowledge they have of the existence of bullying behavior in other schools. Likewise, the existence of action plans against bullying in the school conditions the teachers’ assessments. The assessments held by psychologists differ significantly from those of teachers, mainly in the identification of the origin of bullying (which teachers attribute to the use of digital technologies and psychologists to the social and family environment of the aggressor). Finally, some implications and recommendations in terms of the training of educational professionals on bullying and the need for greater collaboration between teachers and psychologists are reported.

Impact of work demand constraints on psychological distress through workplace bullying and personality traits: A moderated-mediation model

Introduction

This study addressed the human aspects of sustainable development in organizations by applying work demand resource theory and the main focus of the study is to investigate the negative aspects of workplace bullying on human's mental health. This study investigated how the work demand constraints play a role in increasing psychological distress among employees through the mediation of workplace bullying. This study also considers personality traits that play a role in preventing psychological distress resulting from workplace bullying.

Methods

The authors collected data by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed among 1000 employees selected using a systematic sampling technique, patronized among three service sectors: the health sector, education sector, and forest department in the city of Lahore in Pakistan. The data was analyzed by employing Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS 3.3.3.

Results

Results of this study reveal that work demand constraints (WDC) play a significant role in workplace bullying and impact increasing psychological distress. Personality traits play a moderating role between work demand constraints and workplace bullying behavior on the one hand and psychological distress on the other hand; however, openness to experiences was found to have a moderating relationship between work demand constraints and workplace bullying. Meanwhile, agreeableness and openness to experiences were found to have a moderating relationship between work demand constraints (WDC) and psychological distress.

Discussion

This study also has practical implications for employers, such as providing psychological counseling, personality development training at the workplace etc. The relationship of work demand constraints with psychological distress and workplace bullying through direct and indirect moderating effects of personality traits in Pakistan's service sector are unique contributions of this study.