Consequences of school bullying
and violence
Christina Salmivalli
University of Turku, Finland
• It is evident that children exposed to systematic
victimization by their peers suffer from adjustment
problems
– Victimization is concurrently associated with
depression, anxiety, low global and social self-concept,
suicidal ideation, school avoidance (Card, 2003;
Hawker & Boulton, 2000)…
– Strongest effect sizes for internalizing problems, BUT
victimization is also associated with externalizing
problems
– Victimization is even related to health problems (Rigby,
2001)
– Several interpersonal correlates such as rejection, low
number of friends and low friendship quality
• The bullies, and especially bully-victims, suffer
from adjustment problems as well
• Are the associations between victimization
and maladjustment only concurrent, or does
victimization longitudinally predict
adjustment problems?
• OVERALL:
• Studies investigating the consequences of
victimization while controlling for intitial
levels in the variables of interest are still
surprisingly rare
• Many of the concurrent correlates of victimization
seem to be both antecedents and consequences of
it
– A vicious cycle by which children get trapped in the
role of continued victimization
• HOWEVER:
– Internalizing problems, such as depression, seem to
increase as a result of victimization rather than precede
it
– Low self-esteem, on the other hand, is clearly an
antecedent of victimization, whereas evidence of
longitudinal changes in (global) self-esteem resulting
from victimization is more mixed
(e.g., Card, 2003)
Prospective relations between victimization,
rejection, friendlessness and children’s selfand peer-perceptions
Christina Salmivalli
University of Turku, Finland
(unpublished data)
Grade 5/6
Grade 6/7
.41
self(1)
-.14
-.21
-.17
peer(1)
self(3)
chronic
vic (1-2)
chronic
rej (1-2)
chronic
fri (1-2)
.44
.29
.63
vic(3)
rej(3)
-.25
.23
.14
-.13
fri3
peer(3)
.31
Figure 2. The final model (chi-square (23)=30.16, p=.14; CFI=.99; RMSEA=.04).
• In the short term, victimization seems to influence
children’s generalized perception of peers, rather
than their view of themselves
• A negative self-perception is clearly a risk factor
for victimization (but also for other peer
relationship adversities, such as rejection and
friendlessness)
What about the long run?
• Follow-up studies examining the long-term
consequences of victimization are, to date, almost
nonexistent
– As an exception, Olweus (1994) followed up 87 men
who had been assessed in grade 9 (and, most of them,
also in grade 6) up to 23 years of age.
– The former victims were relatively well-adjusted in
many respects. However, they had a lower self-esteem
and they suffered from depression more often than their
non-victimized age-mates.
Long-term influences of victimization: a
follow-up from adolescence to young
adulthood
Christina Salmivalli
University of Turku, Finland
(unpublished data)
Participants of the study
• 274 young adults (145 male and 129 female), who
had been involved in a research on school bullying
in grade 8 (1996), were approached by mailed
questionnaires eight years later (2004)
– measures of: depression, self-perception, perception of
other people, and interpersonal goals
• 52.4% of men and 78.3% of women responded
– overall response rate = 64.6%
1996
opp-sex
noms
same-sex
noms
vic
2004
self-rep
depression
self
others
Victimization in grade 8 (1996) assessed with
- two self-report items: my classmates make fun of me; people pick on me
-peer-nominations from same-sex and opposite-sex classmates
Depression: BDI, α = .91
Self-perception: Rosenberg SE items, with the instruction to report ”the way you
feel about yourself when interacting with people of your own age”, α = .86
Perception of other people: 13 items describing positive and negative qualities of
other people (age-mates), such as "they can really be relied on", "they are hostile",
or "they really care about what happens to me" α=.88
1996
opp-sex
noms
same-sex
noms
vic
2004
self-rep
.15
-.17
-.22
depression
self
others
1996
opp-sex
noms
same-sex
noms
2004
self-rep
-.14
vic
.16
.18
.35
”happiness and
satisfaction”
”Happiness and satisfaction” scale:
I am a happy person;
I like being the way I am;
I wish I were different;
I am unhappy;
I am cheerful;
I am a lucky person, α=.72
depression
self
others
1996
opp-sex
noms
same-sex
noms
vic
2004
self-rep
.13
depression
.33
self
-.20
others
.16
.15
”happiness and
satisfaction”
1996
opp-sex
noms
same-sex
noms
vic
2004
self-rep
.16
depression
.32
self
-.16
others
.16
.44
”happiness and
satisfaction”
perceived
popularity
.60
χ2(5)=9.09, p=.11, CFI=.97, RMSEA=.07
Perceived popularity: 11 items
(e.g., I am not very popular;
I have many friends).
.16
perceived
family support
Perceived family support: 6 items
(e.g., Nobody cares for me at home;
my parents like me)
• Victimization in adolescence (grade 8, age 14-15)
was predictive of young adults’ (age 22-23)
depression and their perception of other people
• These influences were significant even controlling
for scores on ”happiness and satisfaction” measure
in grade 8
• Unlike victimization, perceived popularity and/or
perceived family support did not predict variance
in any of the outcome variables eight years later
Consequences for the group?
• Bukowski and Sippola (2001): "victimization not
only damages the individual, but damages the
group itself as well as the individuals who
constitute the group”
• How does victimization damage the group?
Experienced and observed victimization
and school satisfaction
• With multilevel modeling, it is possible to
disentangle the variance in school satisfaction
between individual students, from variance
between different school classes
operationalization of school satisfaction:
MARK THE FACE THAT BEST DESCRIBES YOU WHEN AT
SCHOOL
.
.
____
.
.
____
.
.
_____
x
.
.
_____
.
.
_____
. .
_____
. .
_____
A study with 48 classrooms (grades 4 to 6)
- some initial findings:
• Classrooms differ from each other in the overall
degree of victimization
– differences in experienced victimization are between
individual children, rather than between classrooms:
significant differences in observed victimization can be
detected between classrooms, however
– there are also significant differences between
classrooms in school satisfaction
• At the individual level, experienced victimization
is related to lowered level of school satisfaction
• At the classroom level, the overall degree of
victimization in the classroom is related to
lowered level of school satisfaction
experienced
victimization
observed
victimization
1.00
.72
BETWEEN-LEVEL:
(explaining variation
between classrooms)
degree of victimization
in the classroom
-.31
shool enjoyment / satisfaction
WITHIN-LEVEL:
(explaining variation
between students)
.16
observed
victimization
experienced
victimization
1.00
gender
-.06 (n.s.)
-.14
experienced
victimization
.61
1.00
observed
victimization
Research on consequences of
victimization: some future challenges
• More prospective studies controlling for adjustment
variables at time 1 are needed, to avoid confounding
antecedents of victimization from their consequences
• Need to identify mechanisms of influence
• Need to identify moderators
– protective factors ?
• Group-level consequences (as well as antecedents) of
victimization/aggression are not yet well-known
• And what about group-level protective factors?