Intelligent, attractive, well-behaving, unhappy: The structure of adolescents' self-concept and its relations to their social behavior

The self-concept (SC) structures of adolescent girls and boys were examined and related to their social behavior in situations of bullying. The participants were 281 eighth-grade adolescents, aged 14 to 15 years, from 15 school classes. The measures used were the Participant Role Questionnaire and an applied version of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. A cluster analysis was performed to form groups with similar SC profiles. The ultimate solution consisted of six clusters, which differed significantly from each other in how much their members tended to bully others, assist the bully, reinforce the bully, and withdraw from bullying situations. Adolescents who tended to bully others typically had high social and physical SC, although their view of themselves was rather negative on the other SC domains. Youngsters who tended to assist or reinforce the bully either had an SC structure similar to that of the bullies, or they scored low on all SC domains. Withdrawing from bullying situations was most typical of adolescents who had at least average scores on behavioral and family-related SC, although they did not perceive themselves as very competent in other areas. Although the differences between the groups were not significant in regard to being victimized and defending the victims bullied by others, some observations could be made: Adolescents with low social and physical SC or low SC on all domains were victimized most, although defending the victims was most typical of girls and boys who considered themselves competent in all areas.