VRC collaborator Izabela Zych co-authored a paper entitled A Longitudinal Study on Stability and Transitions Among Bullying Roles with Vicente J. Llorent and Denis Ribeaud, and VRC researchers Maria M. Ttofi, David P. Farrington and Manuel P. Eisner. The authors wish to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Jacobs Foundation, and the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health for financial support for the z‐proso study during the period 2009–2015. They are also grateful to the youths, parents and teachers who provided data for the z‐proso study. Special thanks to the Spanish Ministry of Education for providing a Jose Castillejo mobility grant to Izabela Zych and Vicente J. Llorent.
Abstract
Trajectories of stability and change in bullying roles were examined through a longitudinal prospective study of 916 school students followed up biannually from age 11 to 17. Perpetrators and victims had relatively stable trajectories with most of the children remaining in the same role over time or becoming uninvolved. Bully/victim was the most unstable role with frequent transitions to perpetrators or victims. Developmental change in bullying roles was found with a decrease in physical forms over time in bullies and victims but with persistently high perpetration and victimization in bully/victims. These findings open new horizons in research and practice related to bullying and can be useful for its early detection or design of targeted interventions.