خط سیر توسعه ای زورگویی و سلطه اجتماعی در جوانان

Abstract Objective Bullying is increasingly conceptualized as strategic behavior motivated by a desire to gain social dominance in the peer group. Cross-sectional research has shown that relative to their peers bullies are higher in social dominance as indexed by resource control, and are often perceived as powerful and “cool.” However, research examining the developmental relationship between bullying and resource control is lacking. The present longitudinal study fills this gap in the literature.

Results Preliminary and variable-centered analyses Table 1 displays the means and standard deviations for bullying and resource control at each wave, for the total sample and for boys and girls separately. For boys bullying decreased from Time 1 to Time 2, but they consistently engaged in higher levels of bullying than did girls (ps < .001). No gender differences emerged for resource control. Analyses revealed that bullying was very stable over time. Specifically, the correlation between the bullying scores at Time 1 and Time 2 amounted to .81 (p < .001), and the correlation between Time 2 and Time 3 bullying scores was .74 (p < .001). In a similar vein, results revealed substantial stability of resource control over time (the correlation between scores at Time 1 and Time 2 was .53, p < .001; for scores at Time 2 and Time 3 r = .60, p < .001). At all three assessment occasions, scores on the two constructs were significantly associated, and the magnitude of this linkage did not differ over time (r ranging from .41 to .44; ps < .001).