Bullies and Their Friends: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis of the Development of Pro-Bullying Attitudes and Behavior in Adolescents' Friendship Cliques

Background/Purpose

School bullying is a common form of aggressive behavior among children and adolescents. Past research often focused on the individual characteristics of bullies as risk factors, while insufficient attention was paid to look into the social dynamics and peer norms associated with it. School bullies are frequently found to hold positive beliefs toward bullying and regard their aggression as legitimate, and such pro-bullying attitudes are oftentimes endorsed and even encouraged by the peer group. Furthermore, compared to the whole class of fellow students, the attitudes and behavior of one’s close friends may be far more influential in shaping one’s value beliefs, since they are the role models for behavioral learning and norm internalization. Previous studies usually relied on general assessment and were unable to tackle the peer dynamics in depth. The present study explores the above issues with a longitudinal dataset containing detailed social network information on adolescents’ value beliefs, friend nominations, and bullying perpetration. Specifically, we hope to examine adolescents’ friendship cliques and assess the effects of friends’ attitudes and behavior on students’ own attitudes toward bullying over time.

 

Methods

Data and samples

Two classes of students (N=58) from one middle school in Taipei, Taiwan were followed from 7^th to 9^th grade. They were regularly assessed via self-reported surveys, and detailed social network data were collected to provide snapshots of the classroom peer dynamics.

Measures

Students’ self-reported attitudes toward bullying were assessed with a 12-item scale, which was revised from Rigby’s Attitude to Bullying Scale. A class roster was provided and students were asked to nominate (a) their friends and (b) the classmates who bullied them. The friend nominations were used to identify friendship cliques for further analysis. Students’ verbal and physical bullying behavior was computed from the bullying nominations they received from classmates.

Results

We used Poisson regression models to assess the effects of friends’ attitudes and bullying behavior on individual’s own attitudes toward bullying over time. The results showed that adolescents’ verbal behavior in 7^th grade was significantly associated with more positive attitudes toward bullying in 9^th grade. Friends’ pro-bullying attitudes in 7^th grade also significantly predicted one’s own pro-bullying attitudes in 9^th grade. To better estimate the magnitude of peer influence, we created an interaction term (friends’ attitude *number of friends), which was found significant. However, the verbal and physical behavior of friends (as reported by fellow students) did not significantly predict the respondents’ attitudes toward bullying over time.

Conclusions and Implications

By closely examining the adolescents’ friendship cliques, the results of this study confirmed the important influence of friends on middle school students’ attitudes toward bullying over time. School violence prevention programs need to recognize the existence of pro-bullying norms among adolescents and design responding strategies against peer pressure. The non-significant effect of friends’ actual bullying behavior is also intriguing. Instead of directly modeling their friends, students seem to infer peer value beliefs through other avenues. Future research should investigate the potential role of pluralistic ignorance in the development of pro-bullying norms in peer groups.