Bullies, victims, and bully/victims: Distinct groups of at-risk youth

Bullying and victimization are prevalent problems in the area of adolescent peer relationships. Middle school students (N = 4,263) in one Maryland school district completed surveys covering a range of problem behaviors and psychosocial variables. Overall, 30.9% of the students reported being victimized three or more limes in the past year and 7.4% reported bullying three or more rimes over the past year. More than one half of the bullies also reported being victimized. Those bully/victims were found to score less favorably than either bullies or victims on all the measured psychosocial and behavioral variables. Results of a discriminant function analysis demonstrated that a group of psychosocial and behavioral predictors-including problem behaviors, attitudes toward deviance, peer influences depressive symptoms, school-related functioning, and parenting-formed a linear separation between the comparison group (never bullied or victimized), the victim group, the bully group, and the bully/victim group.