Parental Maltreatment and Emotion Dysregulation as Risk Factors for Bullying and Victimization in Middle Childhood

TLDR

The study examined whether caregiver maltreatment increases children’s likelihood of bullying others and of being victimized, and explored the role of emotion dysregulation in these behaviors. The study recruited 169 maltreated and 98 nonmaltreated inner‑city children who attended a summer day camp. Maltreated children were more likely to bully and to be victimized, regardless of gender, and both bullies and victims showed emotion regulation problems; emotion dysregulation uniquely distinguished bullies/victims and mediated the relationship between maltreatment and bullying/victimization.

Abstract

Examined whether children who were maltreated by caregivers were more likely to bully others and to be at risk for victimization by peers. An additional focus was to investigate emotion's role in bullying and victimization among children at risk. Participants were 169 maltreated and 98 nonmaltreated boys and girls attending a summer day camp for inner-city children. As predicted, maltreated children were more likely than nonmaltreated children to bully other children. Bullying was especially prevalent among abused children who experienced maltreating acts of commission (physical or sexual abuse). Maltreatment also placed children at risk for victimization by peers. Gender did not moderate these findings, in that maltreated boys and girls appeared to be at similar risk for bullying and victimization. As expected, both bullies and victims evidenced problems with emotion regulation. Furthermore, logistic regression analyses suggested that emotion dysregulation made a unique contribution toward differentiating bullies and victims from children who did not evidence bully-victim problems. In addition, maltreatment's effects on children's risk for bullying and victimization were mediated by emotion dysregulation.