Bullying Victims’ Perceived Social Support and Psychological Health and Prosocial Behavior: A Latent Profile Analysis

Abstract

The literature on school bullying and perceived social support primarily relies on variable-centered approaches, investigating the independent effects of individual sources of social support. However, victims of school bullying perceive different combinations of levels of social support from multiple sources. Hence, there lacks a holistic person-centered examination of the joint effects of multiple sources of social support. The study surveyed 915 bullying victims (51.9% boys, 48.1% girls; Mage = 13.52, SD = 0.75). Latent profile analysis identified five profiles of social support across five sources (i.e., parents, teachers, classmates, close friends, and online-only friends): online-offline supported adolescents, offline supported adolescents, moderately supported adolescents, close friend supported adolescents, and unsupported. The five social support profiles were associated differently with bullying victims’ demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and socioeconomic status), frequency of victimization, psychological health (i.e., subjective well-being, depression, and anxiety), and prosocial behavior. The findings support the heterogenous nature of social support perceived by bullying victims and offer insights into more tailored interventions aimed at promoting the development victims in different subgroups.