Factors influencing bully-victim Factors influencing bully-victim behaviour with special focus on behaviour with special focus on

self-esteem and depressionself-esteem and depression

Dóra Várnai M.A., Ágnes Németh PhD., Ágnes Balogh, M.A., Gyöngyi Kökönyei, M.A., Gabriella Pál, M.D.,

Anna Aszmann, M.D.

varnai@ogyei.hu

National Institute of Child Health

Bullying and nonbullying victimsBullying and nonbullying victims

Nonbullying victims - who seldom attempt to dominate others through aggressive behavior, they are often unassertive youngsters withdrawing from or concede to bullies and readily display emotional distress when bullied (Olweus, 1991)

Bullying victims - (sometimes described as provocative victims), who frequently aggress towards peers despite being bullied themselves, – engage in numerous aggressive acts towards peers– often show levels of aggression and aggression-related

cognitive profiles comparable to bullies who are not themselves frequent targets of aggression (Vernberg et al., 1999)

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Bullying – the frequencies in the Hungarian Bullying – the frequencies in the Hungarian samplesample

Dóra Várnai, 2004

N=3838

N=655

N=899

N=559

•The recent Hungarian sample (2002/2003) was used for the analysis•Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, T-test, logistic

regression, non parametric tests

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10,9% 64,1%

9,4%15,1% not involved in bullying

victim

bully

bully-victim

Age groups and bullyingAge groups and bullying

• The mean age is significantly lower in the bully-victim group, than in any of other three groups

14,83

13,6513,92

14,84

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Controls Bullies Victims Bully/victims

Controls

Bullies

VictimsBully/victims

T values Controls Bullies Victims

Bully victims t=11,252 t=10,028 t=2,081

Gender differencesGender differences

• There are significant gender differences between groups indicating that the proportion of bully-victims and bullies among boys is significantly higher than among girls (chi square=146,497)

GIRLS N %

Controls 2214 68,9

Bullies 327 12,2

Victim 392 10,2

Bully-victims 282 8,8

BOYS N %

Controls 1605 59,3

Bullies 568 21

Victims 260 9,6

Bully-victims 275 10,2

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Family affluence and bullying

• No significant difference was found between groups in their families’ wealth (FAS), or SES of father

• Victims’ and bully victim’s mother’ SES is significantly lower than in any other group

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FAS Mean Median

Controls 2,36 2

Victims 2,34 2

Bully victims 2,42 2

Bullies 2,38 2

ObesityObesity

• The ratio of obese children among bully victims is significantly higher than among controls (chi-

square=17,561*), or bullies (chi

square= 5,161*) but not significantly higher than among victims (chi square= 0,939)

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Obese

Controls 384

10,8%

Bully victims 89

17,1%

Bullies 109

12,7%

Victims 89

15,0%

HeightHeight We used height standards

computed using age and self reported height (cm)

If we compare height category there are more short and normal and less tall children among bully victims than among controls (chi square=11,361*), or bullies (chi square=21,341*)

There are almost equal numbers of shorts, normals and talls among victims and bully victims (chi-square=4,711)

350 71 64

1813409

320286

1414 380

175 166

101

Controls Bullies Victims Bully_victims

short normal tall

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Bullying and self-esteem Self – esteem was evaluated with Rosenberg self esteem items where higher scores indicate

higher self-esteem, It has been evaluated for 15-17 year olds Self-esteem of bully-victims and victims is significantly lower than of controls or of bullies

28,09 28,1926,29 26,21

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

controls bullies victims bully-victims

N=2804 N=668 N=394 N=318

T values Bully-victms

Victims

Bullies t=6,131* t= - 6,156*

Controls t= 6,805* t=7,094*

Dóra Várnai, 2004

Bullying and depression

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Mean=3,55(Median=3,0)

Mean=3,65(Median=3,0)

Mean=1,91(Median=1,0)

Mean=2,16(Median=2,0)

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

controls bullies victims bully-victims

N=2827 N=680 N=405 N=333

•Depression was evaluated with Child Depression Inventory items (Kovács, 1985)

•Higher scores on scale indicate higher level of depression, that is significantly higher for victims or bully victims, than of bullies and controls

Time out with friendsTime out with friends• Bully-victims don’t spend less

afternoons with friends than

controls: it seems that their social

network is not significantly poorer

as that of the normal population

• They spend more time out with

friends than victims,

• But significantly less time out than

bullies

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Mean Median

Bully victims

3,09 3,00

Controls 3,02 3,00

Victims 2,78 3,00

Bullies 3,49 4,00

Attitude towards classmatesAttitude towards classmates

Higher scores indicate more preferable attitude towards classmates

There is significant difference between bully-victims and controls or bullies, indicating that bully victims judge class climate less advisable

There is no significant difference between victims and bully-victims in this point of view

Mean Median

Controls 16,025 16,00

Bullies 15,29 15,00

Victims 14,628 15,00

Bully-victims

14,625 16,00

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Attitude towards teachersAttitude towards teachers

Using this scale-like variable higher scores indicate better attitude towards teachers

Bully victims, just as bullies judge teachers significantly less fair and helpful than do controls and victims

Means Medians

Controls 13.58 14

Victims 13,25 14

Bullies 12,76 13

Bully-victims 12,59 13

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Parental controlParental control Higher scores indicate higher parental control The paternal control is significantly lower for bully-victims and bullies

than for controls or victims The same is true for mother control, but in mother control there is no

difference between victims and controls, whilst paternal control is higher for controls

Paternal control Maternal control

Means Medians Means Medians

Controls 12,82 13,00 13,87 15,00

Victims 12,59 13,00 13,77 14,00

Bully-victims 12,15 13,00 13,32 14,00

Bullies 12,15 13,00 13,28 14,00

Parental loveParental love There is significant difference of maternal and

paternal love variable indicating that bullies and bully-victim report to have lower level of maternal affection than controls or victims

(There is significant difference between victims and controls as well on both variables)

Paternal love Mothernal love

Means Medians Means Medians

Controls 10,15 11 11,12 12

Victims 9,93 10 10,9 12

Bullies 9,7 10 10,89 11

Bully victims 9,76 10 10,75 11

Logistic regression modelLogistic regression model Logistic regression models were built (with the above mentioned variables as

independent variables), but the multicollinearity proved to be too high in some cases– our future plan is to handle these variables together

Those who are obese have 1, 569 times higher chance to become bully-victims than to be controls and depressed children have 1,226 times higher chance to become bully-victim than to be control

OR Compared to Controls

Compared to Victims

Compared to Bullies

Depression 1,226 Non sign. 1.010

1,251

Obesity 1,569 Non sign.

1,172

1,421

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Possible reasons

• Victims’ aggression towards peers could be a reactive following episodes of being bullied

• This suggests bully-victims may access physically aggressive responses quicker in potential confrontations with peers and in some instances fail to select appropriate alternatives to aggression during confrontation

• Perhaps victims' intentions to aggress are generated by less adaptive coping with emotional arousal.

• Negative body image is associated with bullying – they do not

have more mature means from which to form masculine identity

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ConclusionConclusion• Younger children, boys and obese children are at higher risk to be a

bully victims• Bully victims are rather similar to victims and differ from bullies or

controls in obesity, depression and lack of self-esteem, worse attitude towards classmates

• Bully victims are rather similar to bullies in lower parental control, lower percepted affection for mother or father, worse attitude towards teachers

• They do not differ from the other groups in height or in family affluence and they don’t spend less time out with friends than controls do

• They really shape a mixed group sharing characteristic of both bullies and victims

Dóra Várnai, 2004National Institute of Child Health

Thank you!Thank you!

VARNAI@OGYEI.HU

National Institute of Child Health