Latent Transition Analysis of Bullying and Victimization Experience in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Bullying is defined as persistent, hostile actions intended to harm the recipient in a power imbalance relationship that impacts children and adolescents worldwide. Questions about stability and changes in patterns of bullying behaviours remain unanswered. The current study uses latent transition analyses to estimate latent transitions of bullying and victim patterns over one year in early adolescence and the association between behavioural and emotional symptoms and patterns of bullying behaviours. The study utilized secondary self–report data from a longitudinal study that evaluated the effectiveness of the KiVa Antibullying Program among Chilean school students (n = 5151) aged 9–13 years at baseline. We employed latent class analysis to identify students’ classes and latent transition analysis to examine the changes or stability between 2016 and 2017. Results showed that students could be classified into four statuses across two points: bully-victim, verbal psychological victim, teasing-bully, and non-involved. The four statuses exhibited varying probabilities of remaining the same. The most stable status was non-involved (.804), while the weakest was bully-victim (.333). Both verbal psychological victim (.569) and teasing-bully (.450) had nearly equal probabilities of remaining in their status or transitioning. Emotional and behaviour indicators significantly predicted stability and/or transition between statuses. Sex as a predictor was related to status membership. These results underscore the importance of identifying subgroups of bullying behaviours to tailor interventions that address specific students’ emotional and behavioural aspects to reduce the persistence of bullying behaviours, particularly for those who are at higher risk of transitioning from one role to another.