Tackling adolescent bullying head on: Victimisation, perpetration and targeted intervention

Abstract

Bullying among school-aged children is a common issue worldwide and is associated with significant concurrent and prospective emotional and behavioural problems. To date, bullying research and intervention has been limited in several areas, including: the predominance of a narrow focus on bullying types and associated problems; few prospective studies; limited effectiveness of universal interventions for adolescent bullying; and a lack of targeted interventions for bullying and associated harms.

This thesis aims to address these gaps through an examination of a cohort of Australian adolescents. Specifically, this thesis aims to: 1) Compare concurrent internalising and externalising problems and suicidal ideation among bullies, victims and bully-victims; 2) Examine concurrent and prospective associations between bullying (victimisation and/or perpetration) and substance use; 3) Examine prospective associations between personality types and bullying (victimisation and perpetration); and 4) Assess an innovative personality-focused approach to bullying intervention (for bullies and victims).

This thesis provides novel and important contributions to the bullying literature. Firstly, there was a high prevalence of internalising and externalising problems and suicidal ideation among adolescents involved in all forms of bullying, and particularly among bully-victims. Secondly, there was evidence of a prospective relationship between bully-victim status and risky drinking and cannabis use. Thirdly, personality dimensions predicted both bullying victimisation and bullying perpetration. Finally, a personality-targeted intervention reduced further victimisation, suicidality and internalising problems among victims, and suicidality and externalising problems among bullies. Clinical and research implications are discussed, including: the need for improved understanding of, and addressing the overlap between, bullying victimisation and perpetration and the associated problems; the importance of screening adolescents involved in bullying for externalising problems, internalising problems, and suicidal ideation; a need for further exploration of the role of personality in bullying; and the need for more feasible school-based bullying intervention. Overall, it is clear from this thesis that targeted intervention for adolescents involved in bullying is of vital importance in tackling adolescent bullying and associated harms.