Bullying as a group process: Participant roles and their relations to social status within the group

TLDR

The study examined how children’s roles in bullying—victim, bully, reinforcer, assistant, defender, outsider—relate to self‑reported behavior, social acceptance/rejection, and membership in one of five sociometric status groups. Researchers observed 573 Finnish sixth‑grade students in a school setting, categorizing each child into one of six participant roles to analyze bullying as a group process. Results showed boys were more often bullies, reinforcers, or assistants, while girls were more frequently defenders or outsiders; children were moderately aware of their roles but tended to underestimate active bullying, and role patterns correlated with sociometric status. © 1996 Wiley‑Liss, Inc.

Abstract

Bullying was investigated as a group process, a social phenomenon taking place in a school setting among 573 Finnish sixth-grade children (286 girls, 287 boys) aged 12–13 years. Different Participant Roles taken by individual children in the bullying process were examined and related to a) self-estimated behavior in bullying situations, b) social acceptance and social rejection, and c) belongingness to one of the five sociometric status groups (popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average). The Participant Roles assigned to the subject were Victim, Bully, Reinforcer of the bully, Assistant of the bully, Defender of the victim, and Outsider. There were significant sex differences in the distribution of Participant Roles. Boys were more frequently in the roles of Bully, Reinforcer and Assistant, while the most frequent roles of the girls were those of Defender and Outsider. The subjects were moderately well aware of their Participant Roles, although they underestimated their participation in active bullying behavior and emphasized that they acted as Defenders and Outsiders. The sociometric status of the children was found to be connected to their Participant Roles. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.