Research Centre Psychosocial Development in Context, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC,Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Child Abuse Negl. 2013 Apr;37(4):224-34. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.12.004. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
Bullying is increasingly conceptualized as strategic behavior motivated by a desire to gain social dominance in the peer group. Cross-sectional research has shown that relative to their peers bullies are higher in social dominance as indexed by resource control, and are often perceived as powerful and "cool." However, research examining the developmental relationship between bullying and resource control is lacking. The present longitudinal study fills this gap in the literature.
Using a three wave design, participants (N=394) were followed from late childhood into early adolescence. Joint trajectory analyses were used to test whether groups with distinct developmental trajectories of bullying and resource control can be identified, and how these trajectories are related.
For both bullying and resource control three groups emerged (high, medium, and low), indicating that bullies and social dominants do not constitute one homogeneous group. More intense bullying is associated with higher levels of social dominance. Being consistently high in bullying is almost synonymous with being consistently high in resource control, whereas the reverse is not the case.
Findings suggest that high bullying leads to the attainment of high social dominance, and do not support the view that children high in social dominance engage in bullying to maintain their dominant position.
This study further underscores the need for interventions targeting mechanisms by which the peer group assigns social dominance to bullies.
欺凌行为越来越被视为一种出于在同伴群体中获得社会支配地位的动机而采取的策略行为。横断面研究表明，与同龄人相比，欺凌者在资源控制方面表现出更高的社会支配地位，并且往往被视为强大和“酷”。然而，研究欺凌与资源控制之间的发展关系的研究却很少。本纵向研究填补了这一文献空白。
使用三波设计，参与者（N=394）从儿童后期到青少年早期进行了跟踪研究。联合轨迹分析用于检验是否可以识别出具有不同欺凌和资源控制发展轨迹的群体，以及这些轨迹之间的关系。
对于欺凌和资源控制，都出现了三组（高、中、低），表明欺凌者和社会支配者并不是一个同质的群体。更强烈的欺凌行为与更高的社会支配地位有关。持续的高欺凌行为几乎等同于持续的高资源控制，反之则不然。
研究结果表明，高强度的欺凌行为会导致获得高社会支配地位，并且不支持儿童高社会支配地位参与欺凌行为以维持其支配地位的观点。
本研究进一步强调需要针对同伴群体将社会支配地位赋予欺凌者的机制进行干预。
