Different forms of bullying and victimization: Bully-victims versus bullies and victims

Although much is known about bully-victims, children who bully others and are victimized by others, the forms of bullying they employ and experience have received little attention. The present study examined the extent to which bully-victims (in comparison to pure bullies and pure victims) are perpetrators and targets of verbal, physical, indirect, and cyber bullying. The sample included 19,869 students from grades 1 to 8 (7 to 15 years of age). Bully-victims (whether identified by self- or peer-reports) perpetrated significantly more physical and verbal bullying than pure bullies. They also tended to score higher than bullies in cyberbullying, but not in indirect bullying. With respect to victimization, bully-victims were more frequent targets of all four forms of victimization than pure victims. The frequent victimization experiences of bully-victims may be one factor contributing to their high maladjustment reported in the literature. Challenges for teacher training and bullying interventions are discussed.