School bullying and self-efficacy in adolescence: A meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

Given that literature has examined the relation between school bullying and self-efficacy, findings have been mixed. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify whether school bullying is associated with adolescents' self-efficacy, a key component of social information processing essential for the evaluation of potential behavioral responses. We further examined moderators associated with heterogeneity in the above relation, including participant roles, types of school bullying, types of self-efficacy, and demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, and cultural background).

METHOD

This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Statement for searching, identifying, and screening eligible articles. A total of 53 articles (N = 71,661; Mage  = 12.69 years) were included (50 in English and 3 in Chinese). Articles were coded by two graduate-level coders independently with a high inter-rater reliability (97.12%).

RESULTS

The results showed that (1) school bullying was negatively associated with self-efficacy (r = -.07, p < .001) among adolescents, and (2) the above relation varied by participant role (e.g., bullies, victims, bully-victims, and defenders), types of school bullying (e.g., traditional bullying, cyberbullying, and both), and types of self-efficacy (e.g., general and domain-specific self-efficacy).

FINDINGS

The findings highlight that school bullying is associated with disruptive cognitive processing in adolescence, low self-efficacy in particular, and the heterogeneity should be considered to fully understand the association between school bullying and self-efficacy among adolescents.

Reducing Bullying through Empathy Training: The Effect of Teacher’s Passive Presence

Bullying is a serious problem in schools all around the globe, and implementing intervention strategies effective over time is still difficult, despite the consistent literature on the subject. In this study, we tested the efficiency of a 5-day intensive empathy training program in reducing bullying among third graders. The sample included three classes of third graders (N = 64, Mage = 9.45; SDage = 0.50) from a Romanian school. A 3 × 3 mixed experimental design was used where we manipulated the type of intervention (control group—no empathy training, experimental group 1—empathy training with the teacher present, and experimental group 2—empathy training without teacher present) and the time of measurement (pre-test, post-test, and 3 weeks’ follow-up). The results showed that the intervention determined a significant increase in empathy and a significant decrease in verbal bullying but only for the experimental group where the teacher was physically present in the classroom during the intervention. Moreover, the pattern of results showed that the effects of the intervention increased 21 days after it was completed, meaning that the program could have long-term effects. No significant change in physical bullying behaviors was observed.

Does Bullying Attitude Matter in School Bullying among Adolescent Students: Evidence from 34 OECD Countries

There is a need to study the relationship between adolescent bullying attitudes and school bullying behavior to reduce instances of bullying in schools. Based on the Program for International Student Assessment 2018 (PISA 2018), this study investigated the relationship between adolescent bullying attitudes towards different roles and school bullying behavior. Among 34 OECD countries, it also studied the mediating roles of student cooperation and competition, and adolescent bullying attitudes based on gender, grade, and whether one was a bullying victim. We adopted the Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) method to control the effects of confounders on evaluation results. Overall, the results showed that bullied adolescents’ attitudes towards bullying followers and non-bullied adolescents’ attitudes towards bullying bystanders and defenders were more positively associated with school bullying behavior. Student cooperation partially mediated this relationship and student competition played the suppressor. The findings also provided fresh insights into anti-school bullying campaigns and practices.

Self-Efficacy and External Locus of Control as Predictors of Participant Roles in Relational Aggression

We examined the extent to which the perceived behavioral control factors of pro-social, emotional, or verbal-social self-efficacy (SE) as well as external locus of control (LOC) explain the variance between different participant roles: relational aggressors, relational victims, relational aggressive-victims, and bystanders. Participants included 1,518 adolescents (61.6% boys and 38.4% girls) from 15 Israeli middle and high schools. Multinomial logistic regression models indicated relational aggressors, and aggressive-victims had lower pro-social SE and higher verbal-social SE than relational victims and bystanders. Relational aggressors, aggressive-victims, and victims had more extensive external LOC than bystanders. The theoretical contribution of verbal-social SE is discussed, and practical implications are highlighted, in particular, regarding the relational aggressive-victim, who exhibits high-risk behaviors.

Peer relations and different functions of cyber-aggression: A longitudinal study in Chinese adolescents

Although previous studies have focused on the associations between peer group relations and cyber-aggression, limited attention has been paid to the heterogeneity in the functions of cyber-aggression. This study explored the unique associations of peer relations with proactive and reactive cyber-aggression and the possible mechanisms underlying them in a sample of adolescents using a longitudinal study design. A total of 829 middle school students completed the Cyber-rage and Cyber-reward Aggression Subscales of the Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire, the Peer Relations Scale, the Social Information Processing-Attributional Bias Questionnaire, and the Self-efficacy for Aggression Scale twice at a 6-month interval. Multiple mediation analyses and bootstrapping were conducted using the Mplus 8 software. The results indicated that satisfying peer relations were negatively correlated with reactive cyber-aggression and positively associated with proactive cyber-aggression. Moreover, hostile intent attribution and self-efficacy for aggression mediated the associations between peer relations and both functions of cyber-aggression, however, in different ways. Unsatisfying peer relations were associated with higher levels of hostile intent attribution and lower levels of self-efficacy for aggression and predicted increases in reactive cyber-aggression. In contrast, satisfying peer relations were associated with lower levels of hostile intent attribution and higher levels of self-efficacy for aggression and predicted increases in proactive cyber-aggression. The findings indicated that different functions of cyber-aggression might be related to different mediation mechanisms, which sheds light on the prevention of cyber-aggression in the future.

The relationship between psychosocial circumstances and injuries in adolescents: An analysis of 87,269 individuals from 26 countries using the Global School-based Student Health Survey

BACKGROUND

Over a million adolescents die globally each year from preventable or treatable causes, with injuries (intentional and unintentional) being the leading cause of these deaths. To inform strategies to prevent these injuries, we aimed to assess psychosocial factors associated with serious injury occurrence, type, and mechanism in adolescents.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected from the Global School-based Student Health Survey between 2009 and 2015. We used logistic regression to estimate associations between prevalence of serious injuries, injury type (effects of injury), and injury mechanism (cause of injury) and psychosocial factors (factors that relate to individuals socially, or their thoughts or behaviour, or the interrelation between these variables). Psychosocial factors were categorised, based on review of the literature, author knowledge, and discussion amongst authors. The categories were markers of risky behaviour (smoking, alcohol use, drug use, and physical activity), contextual factors (hunger, bullying, and loneliness), protective factors (number of friends and having a supportive family), and markers of poor mental health (planned or attempted suicide and being too worried to sleep). Models were adjusted for country factors (geographical area and income status, both using World Bank classification), demographic factors (age and sex), and factors to explain the survey design. A total of 87,269 adolescents living in 26 countries were included. The weighted majority were 14-15 years old (45.88%), male (50.70%), from a lower-middle-income country (81.93%), and from East Asia and the Pacific (66.83%). The weighted prevalence of a serious injury in the last 12 months was 36.33%, with the rate being higher in low-income countries compared to other countries (48.74% versus 36.14%) and amongst males compared to females (42.62% versus 29.87%). Psychosocial factors most strongly associated with serious injury were being bullied (odds ratio [OR] 2.45, 95% CI 1.93 to 3.13, p < 0.001), drug use (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.73 to 2.49, p < 0.001), attempting suicide (OR 1.78, CI 1.55 to 2.04, p < 0.001), being too worried to sleep (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.54 to 2.10, p < 0.001), feeling lonely (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.37 to 1.89, p < 0.001), and going hungry (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.30 to 2.01, p < 0.001). Factors hypothesised to be protective were not associated with reduced odds of serious injury: Number of close friends was associated with an increased odds of injury (OR 1.23, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.43, p = 0.007), as was having understanding parents or guardians (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.26, p = 0.036). Being bullied, using drugs, and attempting suicide were associated with most types of injury, and being bullied or too worried to sleep were associated with most mechanisms of injury; other psychosocial factors were variably associated with injury type and mechanism. Limitations include the cross-sectional study design, making it not possible to determine the directionality of the associations found, and the survey not capturing children who did not go to school.

CONCLUSIONS

We observed strong associations between serious injury and psychosocial factors, but we note the relationships are likely to be complex and our findings do not inform causality. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that multifactorial programmes to target psychosocial factors might reduce the number of serious injuries in adolescents, in particular programmes concentrating on reducing bullying and drug use and improving mental health.

Development and Validation of ICT Self-Efficacy Scale: Exploring the Relationship with Cyberbullying and Victimization

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the ICT Self-Efficacy Scale and the association of cyberbullying and victimization with ICT self-efficacy. Sample 1 (436 university students) was used to identify the factor structure of the Scale, and sample 2 (1115 university students) provided the data to confirm the factor structure (CFA), and to compute the internal consistency reliability, and convergent validity of the scale. Findings demonstrate that the new scale is a reliable and valid domain-specific measure to assess ICT Self-Efficacy for university students. Suggestions for further research with the scale are provided.

Do adolescent risk behaviors mediate health and school bullying? Testing the stress process and general strain frameworks

Adolescent bullying is a significant public health issue in the United States. The health consequences of bullying may vary, however, according to the social position and characteristics of victims and bullies within the bullying subculture. For example, research suggests that bully involved youth are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors, including social withdrawal, tobacco, and alcohol use. Yet, the extent to which health outcomes are shaped by involvements in bullying or the risk behaviors associated with bullying remains unclear. In this study we assess the extent to which risk behaviors mediate the links between health outcomes of bully-involved youth using data from the Health Behavior of School Aged Children 2005-2006 Study (N = 8066). School-level fixed-effects regression models assessed whether risk behaviors mediate relationships between bullying statuses and somatic and depressive symptoms. Results show that mediational risk behavior pathways vary across outcomes for youth situated differently in the bullying subculture, with substantially more mediation for bullies than victims. This study advances the current bullying and health research by accounting for risk behavior pathways linking bullying and health.

Adolescents' explicit and implicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers with different bullying participant roles

This study examined how adolescents evaluate bullying at three levels of specificity: (a) the general concept of bullying, (b) hypothetical peers in different bullying participant roles, and (c) actual peers in different bullying participant roles. Participants were 163 predominantly ethnic majority adolescents in The Netherlands (58% girls; M_age=16.34years, SD=0.79). For the hypothetical peers, we examined adolescents' explicit evaluations as well as their implicit evaluations. Adolescents evaluated the general concept of bullying negatively. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers in the bullying roles depended on their own role, but adolescents' implicit evaluations of hypothetical peers did not. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical peers and actual peers were different. Hypothetical bullies were evaluated negatively by all classmates, whereas hypothetical victims were evaluated relatively positively compared with the other roles. However, when adolescents evaluated their actual classmates, the differences between bullies and the other roles were smaller, whereas victims were evaluated the most negatively of all roles. Further research should take into account that adolescents' evaluations of hypothetical peers differ from their evaluations of actual peers.

Understanding Risk-taking Behavior in Bullies, Victims, and Bully Victims Using Cognitive- and Emotion-Focused Approaches

Bullying and risky behavior are two common problems among adolescents and can strongly affect a youth’s overall functioning when both coexist. Some studies suggest that bullying in adolescence may promote risky behavior as a coping strategy to deal with victimization related stress. Other studies consider bullying as an outcome of high-risk behavior. Despite the association between the two is well-established, no study has examined the risk-taking patterns among bullying groups (i.e., bully, victim, and bully victim). This study attempted to elucidate the potential relationships between bullying and risk-taking by addressing the two models: a cognitive-focused model and an emotion-focused model of risk taking, and to clarify how adolescents’ characteristics in risk taking associate with bullying outcomes.

Method: 136 Chinese adolescents (Mean Age = 14.5, M = 65, F = 71) were recruited and grouped according to bullying identity: Bully (n = 27), Victim (n = 20), Bully victim (n = 37) and Control (n = 52). Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events (CARE) questionnaire was used to measure participants’ expectancies about the risks, benefits and involvement associated with risky activities. Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) was administered to capture the emotion-laden process in risk taking.

Results: Cognitively, Bully was associated with an overestimation of risk while Victim was associated with an underestimation of risk and overrated benefit. Bully victim exhibited a unique pattern with an overestimation of benefit and risk. All study groups projected higher involvement in risky behavior. Behaviorally, both Bully and Bully victim were associated with high risk modulation whereas Victim was associated with impulsive decision-making. Interestingly, compared with bully, bully victim had significantly higher bullying scores, suggesting a wider range and more frequent bullying activities. In conclusion, Bully maybe a group of adolescents that is vigilant in situational deliberation and risk modulation while Victims with high impulsivity, are more likely to place themselves in risky situations. Bully victims presented the combined pattern of the two pure groups and associated with the highest risk-taking propensity. Better picture of risk taking pattern associated with different groups was illustrated, allowing better matching for future prevention and intervention program for distinct bullying individuals.

Individual Correlates of Bullying Behaviour in Turkish Middle Schools

This study investigated the relationship between bullying involvement (bully, victim, bully/victim, and not involved) and gender, academic achievement, self-efficacies (academic, social, and emotional self-efficacies). Data were collected by administering the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (Olweus, 1996), the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Murris, 2001), and a demographic information form to 721 middle school students (50.3% female, 49.7% male). The associations between bullying involvement and the independent variables were evaluated using a multiple correspondence analysis. Results showed that females tended to be not involved or victims, whereas males tended to be bullies or both bullies and victims. There were moderate associations between all self-efficacies, academic achievement, and bullying involvement. In particular, high self-efficacies and high academic achievement were related to being not involved in bullying, while low self-efficacies and low academic achievement were associated with either being a victim or both bully and victim.

Social Information Processing Mechanisms and Victimization: A Literature Review

The aim of the current literature review, which is based on 64 empirical studies, was to assess to what extent mechanisms of the Social Information Processing (SIP) model of Crick and Dodge (1994) are related to victimization. The reviewed studies have provided support for the relation between victimization and several social information processing mechanisms, especially the interpretation of cues and self-efficacy (as part of the response decision). The relationship between victimization and other mechanisms, such as the response generation, was only studied in a few articles. Until now research has often focused on just one step of the model, instead of attempting to measure the associations between multiple mechanisms and victimization in multivariate analyses. Such analyses would be interesting to gain more insight into the SIP model and its relationship with victimization. The few available longitudinal studies show that mechanisms both predict victimization (internal locus of control, negative self-evaluations and less assertive response selection) and are predicted by victimization (hostile attribution of intent and negative evaluations of others). Associations between victimization and SIP mechanisms vary across different types and severity of victimization (stronger in personal and severe victimization), and different populations (stronger among young victims). Practice could focus on these stronger associations and the interpretation of cues. More research is needed however, to investigate whether intervention programs that address SIP mechanisms are suitable for victimization and all relevant populations.

Bullying and victimization: Predictive role of individual, parental, and academic factors

This study explored the roles of individual factors (age, gender, locus of control, self-esteem, and loneliness), parenting style, and academic achievement in discriminating students involved in bullying (as bullies, victims, and bully/victims) from those not involved. Participants comprised 742 middle school students (393 females, 349 males). The results of multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that a higher locus of control, lower strictness/supervision scores, increased age, and being male increased the likelihood of being a bully; a higher locus of control, higher loneliness score, and a lower acceptance/involvement score increased the likelihood of being a victim; and higher loneliness and psychological autonomy scores and lower acceptance/involvement, strictness/supervision, and academic achievement scores increased the likelihood of being a bully/victim. Although parental style variables play an important role in involvement in bullying, the individual factor loneliness is a more powerful predictor than other predictors in discriminating victims and bully/victims from uninvolved students. Age and gender are stronger predictors than other predictors in discriminating bullies from uninvolved students.

Bullying and victimization experiences in elementary school students nominated by their teachers for Specific Learning Disabilities

This study sought to investigate self-reported bullying and victimization experiences among students nominated by their teachers as meeting the criteria for Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). A total of 346 students attending the upper three grade-levels of Greek primary schools participated in the study. Fifty of them were identified by their teachers as meeting the SLD criteria. All participants completed self-report measures of bullying and victimization and also provided their demographic data. Results showed that SLD students were more likely to act as bully/victims in bullying episodes, by using more direct verbal aggression; whereas the frequency of exhibiting aggressive behaviours, either as passive victims or aggressive bullies, did not differ from that of their non-SLD counterparts. These findings contradict existing research indicating that SLD students are subject to victimization more frequently than their regular peers.

Do cyberbullies suffer too? Cyberbullies’ perceptions of the harm they cause to others and to their own mental health

While it is recognized that there are serious sequelae for students who are victims of cyberbullying including depression, anxiety, lower self-esteem and social difficulties, there has been little research attention paid to the mental health of students who cyberbully. It is known that students who traditionally bully report they feel indifferent to their victims, showing a lack of empathy and that they themselves are at increased risk for psychosocial adjustment. However, there is scant research on the mental health associations for students who cyberbully or their awareness of their impact on others. The current study sought to ascertain from Australian students who reported cyberbullying others in school years 6 to 12 (10–19 years of age), their perceptions of their mental health and the harm they caused to and the impact their actions had, on their victims. Most students who cyberbullied did not think that their bullying was harsh or that they had an impact on their victims. They reported more social difficulties and higher scores on stress, depression and anxiety scales than those students who were not involved in any bullying. The implications of these findings for the mental health of the cyberbullies and for psychologists in schools who assist them, are discussed.

Individual Motivations and Characteristics Associated With Bystander Intervention During Bullying Episodes Among Children and Youth

The aim of the current study was to explore bystander experiences during bullying episodes among children and youth attending a residential summer camp by investigating rates of witnessing and intervention, as well as individual motivations and characteristics associated with bystander intervention. The majority of children had witnessed bullying at least once in the past 3 weeks and reported intervening in some way. Among children who reported intervening, the strongest motivation appeared to be a sense of social justice. Among children who reported not intervening, the strongest motivation appeared to be the feeling that it was not their place to intervene because the bullying situation did not directly involve them and/or was not extremely severe. The determining factors for bystander intervention during bullying episodes differed between genders. Social self-efficacy predicted bystander intervention among girls, while empathy and attitudes about bullying predicted bystander intervention among boys. Implications for bullying prevention are discussed.

Bystander position taking in school bullying: the role of positive identity, self-efficacy, and self-determination

School bullying has become an explicit, burgeoning problem challenging the healthy development of children and adolescents in Hong Kong. Many bullying prevention and intervention programs focus on victims and bullies, with bystanders treated as either nonexistent or irrelevant. This paper asserts that bystanders actually play pivotal roles in deciding whether the bullying process and dynamics are benign or adversarial. Bystanders' own abilities and characteristics often influence how they respond to victims and bullies. “P.A.T.H.S. to Adulthood: A Jockey Club Youth Enhancement Scheme” (P.A.T.H.S. = Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) is an evidence-based positive youth development program which shows that primary intervention programs have constructive impacts on junior secondary school students' beliefs and behavior. This paper asserts that intrapsychic qualities, namely identity, self-efficacy, and self-determination, greatly influence how bystanders react in school bullying situations. The paper also explains how classroom-based educational programs based on the P.A.T.H.S. model have been designed to help junior secondary school students strengthen these characteristics, so that they can be constructive bystanders when they encounter school bullying.

The moderating effect of Machiavellianism on the relationships between bullying, peer acceptance, and school adjustment in adolescents

This study examined the moderating effect of Machiavellianism on the relationships between bullying, peer acceptance, and school adjustment (rule-following behavior and academic performance) among 216 middle school 7th-graders in Taipei, Taiwan. The participants were divided into two groups according to their Machiavellianism. Multi-group path analysis showed that for those who were low in Machiavellianism condition, physical and verbal bullying was negatively linked to peer acceptance and academic performance while no significant association was found for the high-Machiavellianism group. Bullying was negatively, yet non-significantly, associated with rule-following behavior for both groups. The results largely supported the buffering effect of Machiavellianism on the negative outcomes of bullying. Implications for school-violence prevention and for research on adaptive bullies are discussed.

Individual and collective social cognitive influences on peer aggression: exploring the contribution of aggression efficacy, moral disengagement, and collective efficacy

This follow-up study with 1,167 primarily White adolescents (aged 13.45 years at T1, 613 females) examined the impact of self-efficacy for aggression, moral disengagement, and collective efficacy beliefs on peer aggression in schools. Students completed questionnaire measures at the beginning and end of the school year (8 months apart). High aggression efficacy and moral disengagement scores predicted higher frequency of peer aggression over time. Low collective efficacy beliefs regarding the ability of students and teachers to collaboratively act to inhibit peer aggression were also associated with more frequent aggression, although this association was stronger at higher levels of moral disengagement. The findings of this study highlight the need to consider collective efficacy beliefs in conjunction with individual social cognitive processes when seeking to explain aggressive behavior.

Explicit- and implicit bullying attitudes in relation to bullying behavior

The main aim of this study was to examine whether an assessment of implicit bullying attitudes could add to the prediction of bullying behavior after controlling for explicit bullying attitudes. Primary school children (112 boys and 125 girls, M age = 11 years, 5 months) completed two newly developed measures of implicit bullying attitudes (a general Implicit Association Test on bullying and a movie-primed specific IAT on bullying), an explicit bullying attitude measure, and self reported, peer reported, and teacher rated bullying behavior. While explicit bullying attitudes predicted bullying behavior, implicit attitudes did not. However, a significant interaction between implicit and explicit bullying attitudes indicated that in children with relatively positive explicit attitudes, implicit bullying attitudes were important predictors of bullying behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Determinants of adolescents' active defending and passive bystanding behavior in bullying

The literature on participant roles in bullying lacks empirical studies that seek to explain what differentiates defenders from outsiders (or passive bystanders). The present study tested a conceptual model in which two personal characteristics of early adolescent students (empathy and perceived social self-efficacy) were considered as possible determinants of their participant behavior in bullying episodes. A total of 294 Italian early adolescents (mean age=13.3 years, range: 12-14) participated in the study. The structural equation modeling showed that high levels of empathic responsiveness were positively associated with both active defending and passive bystanding behavior, as assessed through peer nominations. In contrast, high levels of social self-efficacy were associated with helping behavior, whereas low levels of social self-efficacy were associated with passive bystanding behavior. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for researchers and educational practitioners.