انعطافپذیری در مقابل قربانی زورگویی: نقش فرد، خانواده و ویژگی های همسالان

Abstract Little research attention has been paid to bullied students who function better than expected and are therefore defined as “resilient”. The present longitudinal study aimed to identify individual, family and peer factors that predict fewer than expected levels of depression and delinquency following experiences of bullying victimization. The sample consisted 3,136 adolescents. Self-report data were used to measure bullying victimization at age 13 and 14 and depression and delinquency at age 14. We examined the effects of gender, self-esteem, social alienation, parental conflict, sibling victimization and number of close friends on levels of emotional and behavioral resilience following bullying victimization. The resilience measures were derived by regressing depression and delinquency scores at age 14 on levels of bullying victimization at age 13 and 14, respectively. The adolescents who reported low depression despite frequently experiencing bullying tended to be male, had higher self-esteem, were feeling less socially alienated, were experiencing low levels of conflict with parents and were not victimized by siblings. On the other hand, the adolescents who reported low delinquency despite frequently experiencing bullying tended to be female, had higher self-esteem, were experiencing low levels of conflict with parents, were not victimized by siblings and had less close friends. Relationships with parents and siblings continue to play some role in promoting emotional and behavioral adjustment among victims of bullying and, therefore, interventions are more likely to be successful if they target both the psychosocial skills of adolescents and their relationships with their family.

Introduction Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior that is repeated over time against a person who feels powerless to defend him or herself (Monks, Smith, Naylor, Barter, Ireland, & Coyne, 2009). It can take many forms such as hitting, name calling, social exclusion, spreading nasty rumors and sending insulting messages by phone. A recent comparison of bullying prevalence across 40 countries revealed that, on average, 26% of adolescents are involved in bullying: 12.6% as victims, 10.7% as bullies and 3.6% as bully victims (Craig et al., 2009). Bullying increases steadily in primary school, peaks during the first years of secondary school (ages 12–14) as students re-negotiate their position in the new peer group and tapers off in late adolescence. The consequences of bullying can be severe and long-lasting, including low self-esteem, depression, academic failure, conduct problems, psychosis and increased risk of suicide (Arseneault et al., 2009, Barker et al., 2008, Brunstein-Klomek et al., 2010 and Schreier et al., 2009). Although bullied students are clearly at risk of the problems mentioned above, not all of them will experience such difficulties. Those individuals who show positive developmental outcomes despite facing stressors such as bullying are referred to as “resilient” (Rutter, 2006). Resilience has been neglected in bullying research (Rothon, Head, Klineberg, & Stansfeld, 2011), and, as a result, it is not currently known how some bullied students manage to bounce back and function well over time despite their negative experience. Studies that have investigated resilience to child maltreatment find that 12–22% of children or adults who were abused as children manifest better outcomes than expected given their experiences of abuse (Jaffee, Caspi, Moffitt, Polo-Tomás, & Taylor, 2007). However, even in this field, longitudinal studies are relatively few and often limited to small samples (Cicchetti, 2010 and Werner, 2013). Identifying the factors that promote positive outcomes in young people who have experienced negative events such as bullying could steer the development of successful interventions for victims. The present study attempts to address this by investigating individual, family and peer predictors of resilience to bullying using a large cohort of adolescents in Scotland.

Results Descriptive statistics, by gender, for the study population are provided in Table 2. Significant gender differences emerged for depression, delinquency, emotional and behavioral resilience, self-esteem, sibling victimization and parental conflict. More specifically, girls reported significantly more depression (t(3,134) = −12.85, p < .001), less conflict with parents (t(3,134) = −5.40, p < .001) and higher behavioral resilience (t(3,134) = −7.21, p < .001) whereas boys reported higher self-esteem (t(3,134) = 12.90, p < .001), more delinquency (t(3,134) = 7.17, p < .001), less sibling victimization (t(3,134) = 3.23, p < .01) and higher emotional resilience (t(3,134) = 13.93, p < .001). Table 2. Descriptive statistics, by gender, for the study population (N = 3,136). Boys (N = 1,521) Girls (N = 1,615) Range M (SD) Range M (SD) Bullying victimization at age 13 0–12 1.51 (2.49) 0–12 1.46 (2.24) Bullying victimization at age 14 0–12 1.37 (2.28) 0–12 1.41 (2.11) Depression 0–18 6.04 (4.03) 0–18 7.97 (4.37) Delinquency 0–14 3.34 (3.01) 0–13 2.61 (2.65) Emotional resilience −14.58 to 12.17 −1.42 (3.68) −14.58 to 8.80 −3.34 (4.04) Behavioral resilience −4.41 to 11.10 6.45 (3.01) −3.41 to 11.24 7.18 (2.63) Self-esteem 0–24 16.34 (4.13) 0–24 14.37 (4.42) Social alienation 0–24 9.58 (6.32) 0–24 9.27 (6.15) Low parental conflict 1–7.15 5.41 (1.02) 1.15–7.15 5.60 (0.95) Low sibling victimization 0–9 7.12 (2.38) 0–9 6.85 (2.37) Range Mdn Range Mdn Number of friends 0–3 1 0–3 1 Table options The correlations table shows that being bullied at age 13 was associated with higher levels of depression (r = .28, p < .01) and delinquency (r = .07, p < .01) one year later. Bullying at age 13 was also associated with experiencing more bullying victimization at age 14, having less self-esteem, feeling more socially alienated, experiencing more conflict with parents, experiencing more sibling victimization and having less close friends (see Table 3). Table 3. Correlations between the study variables (N = 3,136). Correlations matrix Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1 Bullying victimization at age 13 1.00 .45** .28** .07** .00 .00 −.14** .38** −.21** −.18** −.08** 2 Bullying victimization at age 14 1.00 .36** .09** .00 .00 −.11** .29** −.17** −.13** −.04* 3 Depression 1.00 .18** −.92** −.15** −.27** .25** −.24** −.19** −.05** 4 Delinquency 1.00 −.16** −.10** −.07** .02** −.32** −.14** .11** 5 Emotional resilience 1.00 .16** .24** −.12** .17** .14** .03 6 Behavioral resilience 1.00 .05** −.06** .30** .13** −.12** 7 Self-esteem 1.00 −.29** .23** .14** .07* 8 Social alienation 1.00 −.27** −.16** −.13** 9 Low parental conflict 1.00 .31** −.03 10 Low sibling victimization 1.00 −.01 11 Number of close friends 1.00 * p < .05. ** p < .01. Table options Predictors of emotional resilience to bullying The two-step model of the hierarchical regression is presented in Table 4 and shows that individual variables alone accounted for 10% of the total variance of emotional resilience to bullying. Being male (β = .21, p < .001), having high self-esteem (β = .17, p < .001) and feeling less socially alienated (β = −.08, p < .001) significantly predicted emotional resilience to bullying victimization. The inclusion of environmental variables in step 2 of the model further only slightly increased its predictive power (ΔR2 = .02, p < .001). Only low levels of family discord (β = .13, p < .001) and sibling victimization (β = .06, p < .01) were statistically significant predictors of emotional resilience to bullying. The full model accounted for 12% of the variance in emotional resilience to bullying victimization. Table 4. Summary of hierarchical regression models predicting emotional resilience to bullying victimization (N = 3,136). Predictor variable β R2 ΔR2 F change Step 1 0.10 112.96 Male .21*** Self-esteem .17*** Social alienation −.08*** Step 2 0.12 0.02 27.22*** Low parental conflict .13*** Low sibling victimization .06** Number of close friends .00 *p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001. Table options Predictors of behavioral resilience to bullying The two-step model of the hierarchical regression is presented in Table 5 and shows that individual variables alone accounted for 2% of the total variance of behavioral resilience to bullying. Being female (β = −.14, p < .001) and having high self-esteem (β = .08, p < .001) significantly predicted behavioral resilience to bullying victimization. The inclusion of environmental variables in step 2 of the model further increased its predictive power (ΔR2 = .09, p < .001). Low levels of family discord (β = .28, p < .001), low levels of sibling victimization (β = .05, p < .05) and less close friends (β = −.11, p < .001) were statistically significant predictors of emotional resilience to bullying. The full model accounted for 12% of the variance in behavioral resilience to bullying victimization. Table 5. Summary of hierarchical regression models predicting behavioral resilience to bullying victimization (N = 3,136). Predictor variable β R2 ΔR2 F change Step 1 0.02 25.66 Male −.14*** Self-esteem .08*** Social alienation −.03 Step 2 0.116 0.09 108.59*** Low parental conflict .28*** Low sibling victimization .05* Number of close friends −.11*** * p < .05. **p < .01. *** p < .001.