In plain language
Most research on bullying treats victimization as a single thing, and most of it comes from a handful of wealthy OECD countries. That is a weak basis for global conclusions, because being bullied can take quite different forms: physical (being hit or pushed), verbal (being mocked or threatened), and relational (being excluded or having rumors spread about you). This paper asked whether distinguishing these three components changes what we know about who gets victimized and how much it hurts.
The research team tested competing models of peer victimization in an enormous cross-national dataset: 594,196 fifteen-year-olds from 77 countries. The results supported a three-component model over the traditional one-dimensional view, and separating the components clarified several puzzles. Girls experienced less physical and verbal victimization than boys and held stronger anti-bullying attitudes, but gender differences in relational victimization were small. The study also uncovered a paradox: adolescents who were physically victimized held weaker — not stronger — anti-bullying attitudes.
Perhaps most important for schools and policymakers: although policy and practice focus primarily on physical bullying, verbal and relational victimization showed larger associations with poor wellbeing. The findings, which generalized across countries, suggest that anti-bullying efforts need to pay far more attention to the less visible forms of peer harm.
Key findings
- A three-component model distinguishing relational, verbal, and physical victimization was supported over a unidimensional model, and generalized across 594,196 fifteen-year-olds in 77 countries.
- Girls experienced less physical and verbal victimization than boys, but gender differences in relational victimization were small.
- Girls held stronger anti-bullying attitudes than boys.
- Paradoxically, physically victimized adolescents held less — not more — anti-bullying attitudes.
- Verbal and relational victimization had larger negative effects on wellbeing than physical victimization, even though policy and practice focus primarily on the physical form.
- Prior victimization research and meta-analyses, based mostly on a unidimensional perspective in a few developed OECD countries, provide a weak basis for generalization; this multi-component, cross-national approach offers a stronger foundation for policy and intervention.
How to cite
APA
Marsh, H. W., Guo, J., Parker, P. D., Pekrun, R., Basarkod, G., Dicke, T., Parada, R. H., Reeve, J., Craven, R., Ciarrochi, J., Sahdra, B., & Devine, E. K. (2021). An integrative review of cross-national comparisons of verbal, relational, and physical peer victimization: Gender differences, paradoxical anti-bullying attitudes, and well-being. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qfmek
BibTeX
@article{marsh2021integrative,
author = {Marsh, Herbert W. and Guo, Jiesi and Parker, Philip D. and Pekrun, Reinhard and Basarkod, Geetanjali and Dicke, Theresa and Parada, Roberto H. and Reeve, Johnmarshall and Craven, Rhonda and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Sahdra, Baljinder and Devine, Emma K.},
title = {An Integrative Review of Cross-National Comparisons of Verbal, Relational, and Physical Peer Victimization: Gender Differences, Paradoxical Anti-Bullying Attitudes, and Well-Being},
journal = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/qfmek}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.