Profiles of participation in school bullying: Association with student well-being

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the bullying participation profiles in relation to the demographic variables (sex, grade, and ethnicity), and to further investigate the associations between the profiles and student well-being indicators. A final sample for analyses consisted of 725 elementary school children (fourth to sixth grades). Four latent profiles were identified through the latent profile analysis: bullying passive bystanding (8.00%), victimized active defending (8.41%), uninvolved passive bystanding (21.24%), and uninvolved active defending (62.35%). Significant group differences were found in key variables representing student well-being, that is, school connectedness and life satisfaction, across the four latent profiles. Children in the uninvolved active defending were found to have the highest levels of student well-being. Only sex had a significant association with the profiles of demographic variables, with boys more likely to belong to the bullying passive bystanding profile than girls. Implications and future research directions are discussed.