Introduction
Being bullied and aggressive behavior are serious problems that negatively affect schoolchildren’s mental health and achievement [
24]. Olweus [
25] defines bullying or victimization in terms of being bullied, intimidated, or victimized when students are exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions from more powerful peers. Such negative behavior may be manifested in various ways, for example, as teasing, active exclusion from a social group, or physical assaults [
27].
In a cross-national study of 113,000 students between the ages of 11 and 15, from 25 countries, involvement in bullying (as being bullied or as being aggressive toward others) varied from 5 to 54% across countries [
24,
27]. The estimates differ widely. Prevalence numbers for Norway are somewhat lower than for most countries [
30].
Being bullied is known to be associated with a wide range of mental health problems. Victims are more anxious and insecure than other students, in general [
25,
26]. The results of meta-analyses have shown victimization to be correlated with internalizing problems [
15]. According to Perren and Alsaker [
26], victimized children’s lack of friends might render them psychologically and socially vulnerable, and thus more prone to becoming easy targets. In a Swedish study, a substantial proportion of the adolescents in the victim group showed psychiatric symptoms and functioned socially less well than students not involved as victims or as aggressive toward others (hereafter, “noninvolved” students) [
18]. Nansel and colleagues [
24] report remarkable consistency across countries on the relationships between bullying and psychosocial adjustment, with persons who bully others and victims both exhibiting poorer emotional adjustment than those who are not involved in such behaviors.
In general, individuals who are aggressive and bully others show externalizing symptoms [
18], while findings concerning internalizing symptoms are less consistent [
19]. The long-term effects of both being bullied and being aggressive in childhood are poor, and are reported to be potential risk factors for adolescent depression, suicidal behavior, and self-harm [
8,
19,
20,
22,
31,
32]. A worrisome consequence for students who are aggressive toward others is susceptibility to future problems of violence and delinquency [
28,
31].
Gender differences have been found in a cross-national study: boys reported higher rates of aggressive behavior in all 40 countries, and rates of victimization were higher for girls in 29 of 40 countries [
11]. In a large Finnish study, each gender also had a different risk profile. Male victims were at risk of anxiety and later suicide attempts and suicide, and aggressive males were at risk of personality disorders. However, an aggressive status did not predict any psychiatric outcomes or suicidal behavior when psychiatric problems in year 8 were controlled. Among girls, frequent victimization predicted suicide attempts and suicides even when problem levels at 8 years of age were controlled for [
20,
22].
In the present study, in contrast to other studies, specific questions about being bullied both at school and on the way to school were included, in addition to assessment of levels of being bullied. Being aggressive toward others was measured by a scale constructed of four items, while other studies often use a single question. The present study focused the social behavior of the adolescents, their social acceptance, their self-esteem as well as their mental health status, to examine characteristics of bullied and aggressive students. Social problems represented by extreme shyness and related characteristics are suggested as a first step to harassment [
13] and were assessed and discussed in the present study, something that has seldom been done in earlier research. Although children involved as victims or as aggressive are more likely to have used mental health services at some time during their lives [
21], the use of mental health services for such problems might also differ across countries.
The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of being bullied and behaving aggressively toward others and the psychosocial characteristics of exposed students, and to make comparisons with noninvolved students. In addition, the help-seeking behaviors of affected students were addressed, and differences between genders were explored.
Methods
Procedure
The present study was conducted as part of the Youth and Mental Health Study, a longitudinal study assessing mental health among adolescents aged 12–15 years in two counties in central Norway, including one large city, at two time points (T
1 and T
2), 1 year apart, between 1998 and 2000. Twenty-two schools were selected with a probability proportional to their size. A cluster sampling procedure using schools as sampling units was chosen, stratified according to urbanity and geography. The nonresponders (n = 327) at the first data collection were significantly more likely to be boys [χ2 (1) = 45.0, P < 0.001] and younger adolescents [χ2 (1) = 5.47, P < 0.05]. Written consent was obtained from the adolescents and their parents. The questionnaires were completed during two consecutive school hours. Data from the T
1 data collection were used in the present study.
Initial sample (T1)
The T
1 sample consisted of 2,464 adolescents, 50.8% of whom were girls with a mean age of 13.7 (range 12.5–15.7, SD 0.58). The response rate was 88.3%.
Measures
Demographics
Socioeconomic status (SES) of the parents was measured by the classification of the mother’s and father’s occupations according to the ISCO-88 guidelines [
17]. An ordinal scale ranging from 1 (highest) to 5 (lowest) was made. A total of 93.4% of participants had both parents born in Norway, 3.9% had one parent born in Norway and one parent born in another country, and 2.7% had both parents from another country. For analysis, a dichotomized variable was made (one or two Norwegian parents vs. nonNorwegian parents). Of the final sample, 26.9% of participants reported having divorced parents. Of these around 50% lived with single mothers, 36% with stepmothers, 9% with single fathers and the rest shared time between mother and father or lived with foster parents.
Being bullied
Being bullied was measured by three items concerning teasing, exclusion, and physical assault [
3], each rated on a 0- to 5-point scale from “never” to “more than three times a week” during the past 6 months, in school or on the way to school. The following items were used: “I am being made a fool of, teased in a painful way, or somebody has said mean things to me” (teasing); “Sometimes somebody is intentionally excluded by fellow students, or somebody is not allowed to come along. Has such a thing also happened to you?” (exclusion); and “I am tormented, beaten, pulled by the hair, kicked, or attacked in a bad way” (physical assault). These items have previously been used in Norwegian studies [
2,
3]. The total sum score on the being bullied scale was determined; this ranged from 0 to 15. The scale has good internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.68. A dichotomized variable was constructed, including students who were exposed once a week or more (“frequently”) during the past 6 months to any of the items versus students who had not reported being bullied or had reported being bullied only once or twice during the past 6 months, consistent with the cutoff made by Roland [
27].
Aggressive behavior toward others
A composite scale was constructed from four items from the Youth Self-Report (YSR) [
1] that describe aggressive behavior: “I treat others badly”; “I physically attack people”; “I tease others a lot”; and “I threaten to hurt people”. The time range was the previous 6 months. No specific attempts were made to make the students aware that these items could represent a bullying focus. Each item was rated on a 0–2 scale: 0 = “not true”; 1 = “somewhat or sometimes true”; 2 = “very true or often true”. A total sum score was determined. This scale ranged from 0 to 8. The internal consistency of the scale was 0.69. The variable was dichotomized to “often” versus “not true or sometimes” being aggressive toward others during the past 6 months on any of the items.
Emotional and behavioral problems
The YSR [
1] is a widely used self-reporting measure for assessing social competence and mental health problems among adolescents aged 11–18 years. A Norwegian version of the YSR was used to assess students’ psychosocial problems [
23]. The YSR consists of 103 problem items rated on a 0- to 2-point scale: 0 = “not true”; 1 = “somewhat or sometimes true”; 2 = “very true or often true”. The time range was the past 6 months. The YSR consists of nine subscales, and all of the subscales were used in the present study. The social problem subscale included items like “I act too young for my age,” “I am not liked by other kids,” “I keep from getting involved with others,” and “I am too dependent on adults”.
The instrument had construct validity and good test–retest reliability [
1]. In the present study, a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 on the sum score scale was found. The alpha values for the seven subscales ranged from 0.65 to 0.86 (except for withdrawn, 0.57, and social problems, 0.58). Participants who omitted more than eight items on the YSR were excluded from the analyses, in accordance with the manual instructions; this excluded 10.9% of the adolescents.
Depressive symptoms
The Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) is a 34-item questionnaire designed for children and adolescents aged 8–18 years, who report depressive symptoms as specified by the DSM-III-R diagnostic system [
5]. The individual is asked to report on his or her feelings during the preceding 2 weeks on a 3-point scale (“not true”, “sometimes true”, and “true”). The total score range is 0–68. High scores represent high depressive symptom levels. In the present sample, 3-week and 2-month test–retest reliabilities have been reported to be
r = 0.84 and
r = 0.80, respectively [
33], while internal consistency was alpha = 0.91, and convergent validity with the Beck depression inventory was
r = 0.91. The MFQ has been validated using clinical samples [
12,
36].
Self-esteem
Self-esteem was measured using a revised version of The self-perception profile for adolescents (SPPA) [
14,
35]. The SPPA consists of several subscales. Each domain is measured by five items and is scored on a 4-point scale from “applies very well” to “applies very badly”. In this study, the three following subscales were included: global self-worth, social acceptance, and physical appearance. Internal consistencies, as assessed by Cronbach’s alpha, for the sub-scales global self-worth and social acceptance were 0.80 and 0.89 for the subscale physical appearance. High mean item scores represent high self-esteem on the three scales (range 1–4).
Number of close friends
This was measured by a single question with four different alternatives (none, one, two–three, four or more close friends) and was treated as an ordinal variable in the analyses.
Help-seeking behavior
The adolescents were asked if they had received help for mental health problems (from teachers, counselors, school nurses, medical practitioners, psychologists, or psychiatrists) during the past year (No/Yes).
Statistical analyses
The three groups, being bullied, aggressive toward others and noninvolved students were studied. On the various scales (except YSR, which in accordance with manual instructions excluded when omitting more than 8 items), those who had omitted more than 10% of the items were removed from the analyses. Otherwise, missing values were replaced by the mean item scores. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, ver. 16, Chicago, IL). Relationships between categorical variables were analyzed by Pearson’s χ2 statistics. Differences between group means were estimated using t tests or one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc tests. For searching interactions with gender, two-way ANOVAs were performed. For ordinal variables, Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used. Before all analyses, the items from the YSR constituting the aggressive behavior toward others scale were removed from the YSR scales to prevent redundancy. Using the dichotomized bullying variable, a grouping variable including numbers of students being bullied, aggressive toward others, and noninvolved was constructed for frequencies and ANOVA analyses. Students being both bullies and victims (bully-victim) were excluded from the analyses because of small numbers (n = 8). A significance level of P < 0.05 was used.
Results
Prevalence of being bullied and aggressive behavior toward others
Ten percent (
n = 240) of adolescents reported being bullied once a week or more frequently; 8% reported being teased, 3.5% reported being excluded, and 1.9% reported physical assault in the same period. Some reported having been exposed to more than one type of behavior. Significantly more boys than girls reported physical assault once a week or more frequently (2.6 vs. 1.3%), [χ
2 (1) = 5.4,
P < 0.05]. No gender difference was found for teasing and exclusion, see Table
1.
Table 1
Victims of bullying
Not in past 6 months | 62.0 | 61.7 | 75.3 | 70.0 | 81.8 | 90.6 |
1–2 times in past 6 months | 26.8 | 27.5 | 17.6 | 23.7 | 11.4 | 5.3 |
Once a week | 4.1 | 4.1 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 0.3 |
2–3 times a week | 1.5 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
More often | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
Five percent of the adolescents reported having been aggressive toward others “often” during the past 6 months. Often teasing others was reported by 1.6%, attacking others by 1.8%, threatening others by 1.5%, and being mean to others by 1.8%. Significantly more boys than girls reported frequent aggression toward others on the items examined [6.9 vs. 3.2%, χ
2 (1) = 16.9,
P < 0.001], see Table
2 for a list of frequencies of aggression items toward others by gender.
Table 2
Aggressive behavior toward others: Percentages of adolescents reporting aggressive behavior toward others on the YSR during the past 6 months
Not true | 70.3 | 82.5 | 73.8 | 88.5 | 71.7 | 83.5 | 77.0 | 90.8 |
Sometimes true | 24.4 | 15.1 | 19.7 | 8.5 | 19.1 | 11.8 | 13.1 | 4.6 |
Often true | 2.6 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 0.6 |
Relationships between psychosocial measures
The being bullied scale correlated with all the YSR subscales from 0.18 to 0.42 (P < 0.01). The social problem scale correlated most strongly with the being bullied scale (r = 0.42, P < 0.01). The YSR subscales also correlated with the aggression toward others scale from 0.20 to 0.56 (P < 0.01). The YSR delinquent behavior scale followed by the aggressive behavior scale correlated most strongly with the aggressive behavior toward other scale r = 0.56 (P < 0.01), and r = 0.51 (P < 0.01), respectively.
Differences between groups on demographics
No significant differences in SES levels and ethnicity across the three groups were found. More of the students being bullied and students being aggressive toward others reported parental divorce than did noninvolved students [34.1 and 39.6% vs. 26.3%, χ2 (2) = 14.26, P < 0.01]; however, no significant difference was seen between the two involved groups. Students being bullied reported having fewer friends than the other two groups [χ2 (2) = 71.11, P < 0.001], which did not differ from each other.
Differences between groups on emotional and behavioral problems
Using the grouping variables, one-way ANOVA showed differences between the three groups (being bullied, being aggressive toward others, and noninvolved). Mean values, SDs, and group differences for the variables are shown in Table
3.
Table 3
Mean values and SDs (in parentheses) for the various scales for being bullied (once a week or more), aggressive toward others “often”, and noninvolved adolescents with Bonferroni post hoc tests (n = 2,464)
MFQ (0–68) | 17.3 (11.4) | 15.5 (12.0) | 9.5 (8.6) | 90.1*** | 3 < 1, 2*** |
Global self-worth (1–4) | 2.7 (0.7) | 2.8 (0.7) | 3.1 (0.6) | 56.5*** | 3 > 1, 2*** |
Social acceptance (1–4) | 2.6 (0.6) | 3.1 (0.6) | 3.2 (0.5) | 140.1*** | 1 < 2, 3*** 2 > 1** |
YSR sum score scale (0–192) | 47.1 (22.7) | 54.5 (28.5) | 30.1 (17.2) | 147.0*** | 3 < 1, 2*** 2 > 1** |
Withdrawn (1–12) | 4.1 (2.3) | 4.1 (2.8) | 2.7 (2.0) | 53.9*** | 1, 2 > 3*** |
Somatic (1–15) | 4.2 (3.2) | 3.6 (3.5) | 2.5 (2.6) | 40.9*** | 1 > 3*** 1 > 2** |
Anxious/depressed (1–29) | 9.0 (6.1) | 7.9 (6.2) | 4.4 (4.2) | 114.0*** | 1, 2 > 3*** |
Social problems (1–12) | 4.1 (2.6) | 3.5 (2.9) | 2.0 (1.7) | 137.1*** | 1, 2 > 3*** 1 > 2* |
Thought problems (1–12) | 2.5 (2.3) | 3.0 (2.8) | 1.6 (2.0) | 36.2*** | 1, 2 > 3*** |
Attention problems (1–18) | 6.0 (3.3) | 6.1 (3.7) | 4.0 (2.7) | 66.0*** | 1, 2 > 3*** |
Delinquent problems (1–19) | 3.6 (2.9) | 6.3 (4.4) | 2.7 (2.2) | 106.4*** | 1, 2 > 3*** 2 > 1*** |
Aggressive problems (1–31) | 8.9 (4.4) | 11.1 (5.3) | 6.8 (3.8) | 72.8*** | 1, 2 > 3*** 2 > 1*** |
Self-destructive (1–20) | 4.5 (3.4) | 5.0 (4.1) | 2.0 (2.3) | 136.3*** | 1, 2 > 3*** |
The ANOVA analyses showed no differences in depression levels between students being bullied and students being aggressive toward others; however, both groups reported significantly higher levels than noninvolved students (P < 0.001). Similar group differences were also found on the global self-worth subscale. On the YSR, students being bullied and students being aggressive toward others showed significantly higher scores than noninvolved students on all subscales (P < 0.001).
However, differences between the being bullied and the aggressive students were found. Students being aggressive toward others showed significantly higher scores on the YSR sum score scale (P < 0.001) and delinquent and aggressive behavior scales (P < 0.001), and lower scores on social problems (P < 0.05), than students being bullied. Students being aggressive toward others reported higher social acceptance than students being bullied.
Although gender differences were found in the whole sample, no two-way interactions were found between the being bullied and the aggressive groups on the MFQ, the YSR (including all subscales), the social acceptance or global self-worth scales, or gender.
Help and support
Almost 15% of adolescents who were bullied “frequently”, 13.8% of students who were being aggressive toward others “often”, and only 3.7% of noninvolved students had received help because of mental health problems during the past year. Both involved groups were significantly [χ2 (2) = 61.5, P < 0.001] different from noninvolved students, but not from each other. Gender differences were found: bullied boys got more help than bullied girls (16.3 vs. 13.6%); however, no gender differences among the aggressive students were shown (both 13.8%). Among girls, there were no differences in receiving help between bullied and aggressive students, while among boys, the rate was higher among bullied than aggressive students [16.3 vs. 13.8%, χ2 (2) = 46.90, P < 0.001].
Conclusion
More than 10% of adolescents reported having been bullied once a week or more frequently, and 5% of the students reported having been aggressive toward others often during the past 6 months. Bullied students and students who were aggressive toward others showed significantly higher scores on all YSR subscales, higher depressive symptom scores, and more often had divorced parents than noninvolved students. Bullied students reported significantly lower social acceptance and fewer friends than both students who were aggressive and noninvolved students. Social problems were demonstrated in both involved groups. Interventions aimed at improvement of social competence and interaction skills are therefore needed and should be integrated in antibullying programs. However, low rates of help-seeking behavior among adolescents in both involved groups were found, indicating how hard those adolescents are to reach.