A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Admitting to bullying others or denying it: Differences in children’s psychosocial adjustment and implications for intervention




AuthorsGarandeau, Claire F.; Turunen, Tiina; Trach, Jessica; Salmivalli, Christina

Publisher SAGE Publications

Publication year2025

JournalInternational Journal of Behavioral Development

Journal name in sourceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT

Journal acronymIJBD

Volume49

Issue1

First page 1

Last page11

ISSN0165-0254

eISSN1464-0651

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1177/01650254241242690

Web address https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254241242690

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/387542574


Abstract

This study examined whether, for bullying perpetrators, admitting to their behavior was associated with specific psychosocial characteristics, and whether it predicted decreases in bullying behavior and a higher responsiveness to a successful anti-bullying program after 9 months of implementation. It also investigated whether participation in an anti-bullying program deterred admitting to the behavior. At pretest, our sample included 5,908 children and early adolescents (Mage: 11.2 years) in 39 intervention and 38 control schools; among them, 1,304 were peer-identified bullying perpetrators (scoring higher or equal to 0.5 SD above the same-sex classroom mean). Regression analyses indicated that peer-identified bullying perpetrators who admitted to their behavior were more likely to suffer from internalizing problems and reported lower anti-bullying attitudes than those who did not admit to bullying others. There was no significant main effect of admitting to bullying on changes in peer-reported bullying 1 year later. However, in control schools only, those who admitted to bullying at pretest were more likely to continue bullying a year later than those who denied it. There was no evidence that participating in the anti-bullying program made it less likely for peer-identified bullying perpetrators to admit to their behavior.


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Last updated on 2025-28-03 at 12:25