Bullying Victimization Trajectories: Associations With Changes in Social Status Dimensions Within the Classroom Group.

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have identified the association between classroom social status and bullying victimization, but it remains unclear how different victimization trajectories relate separately to social status dimensions: preference (acceptance and rejection) and popularity (popular and unpopular), and whether there are differences between victimization trajectory groups. This study assumed a longitudinal approach to explore these research questions.

METHOD

A total of 3.182 (50% girls; M = 12.55 years at wave 1) students participated in the study.

RESULTS

Four bullying victimization trajectory groups were found: high, decreasing, increasing and low in victimization. Multigroup analyses showed that high in victimization group had the worst acceptance, rejection, and unpopularity indexes. The decreasing victimization group increased in acceptance and popularity, whereas the increasing victimization group increased in rejection and popularity.

CONCLUSIONS

These results underline the importance of considering the different dimensions of social status and their association with victimization trajectories when anti-bullying programs are proposed.