Latent Profile Analysis of Participant Roles in School Bullying and Their Predictors: Focusing on Adolescents' Psychosocial Characteristics and Parenting Styles

This study classifies the roles of adolescents as participants in school bullying into latent profiles and examines the effects of psychosocial characteristics and parenting styles on these roles. Data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018 (KCYPS 2018, sixth-wave, middle-school first-grade cohort) were used to conduct latent profile analysis (LPA) with 2,224 third-year high-school students. Four distinct profiles were identified: the "non-role group"(54.5%), the "defender/bystander group"(27.5%), the "multi-role moderate group"(15.9%), and the "multi-role high group-bully/assistant dominant" (2.2%). Multinomial logistic regression with the R3STEP method revealed that higher aggression and lower parental provision of structure predicted membership in the "high bully/assistant dominant group". Conversely, higher social withdrawal combined with greater parental warmth, autonomy support, and provision of structure increased the likelihood of belonging to the "defender/bystander group". These findings suggest that adolescents' roles in bullying are not fixed categories but complex and context-dependent, and that parenting practices play a crucial role in shaping participation in bullying.