A longitudinal study of bullying, dominance, and victimization during the transition from primary school through secondary school

TLDR

Bullying serves as a mechanism for young adolescents to navigate peer and dominance relationships during school transitions, with its functions evolving throughout adolescence. The study employed a longitudinal, multi‑method, multi‑agent design to examine bullying and victimization as children moved from primary to middle school. Bullying and aggression rose during the transition to middle school and then fell, with bullying mediating dominance status, victimization decreasing, peer affiliation buffering victimization, and boys predominantly targeting other boys rather than girls.

Abstract

Bullying and victimization were studied from a longitudinal, multi‐method, multi‐agent perspective as youngsters made the transition from primary through middle school. Generally, bullying and aggression increased with the transition to middle school and then declined. Bullying mediated youngsters' dominance status during the transition. Bullying may be one way in which young adolescents manage peer and dominance relationships as they make the transition into new social groups. Victimization declined from primary to secondary school. Correspondingly, youngsters' peer affiliations decreased, initially with the transition, and then recovered. Victimization, however, was buffered by peer affiliation, especially like most nominations relative to friendship nominations, during this time. Additionally, and consistent with the idea that bullying is used for dominance displays, cross‐sex comparisons of aggressive bouts indicated that boys targeted other boys and did not target girls. Results are discussed in terms of the changing functions of aggression during adolescence.