Understanding How Resiliency Development Influences Adolescent Bullying and Victimization

In this study, the self-report Youth Resiliency: Assessing Development Strengths (YR:ADS) questionnaire is used with adolescents from seven junior and senior high schools (N = 2,991) to investigate the function of resiliency profiles as a model for understanding why adolescents engage in bullying and acts of aggression and how having these developmental strengths reduces victimization. In support of a protective-protective model of resiliency, the linear relationship with each behaviour indicator shows that the interactive risk and outcome relationship decreases with each strength or resiliency factor present. These results suggest that adolescents with positive situational and internal factors in their daily lives are inclined to lead prosocial or constructive lifestyles. The ability to negotiate risk or engagement in at-risk behaviours needs to shift the future research from simply identifying protective factors, to an understanding of how the development of resiliency processes allow some individuals to cope more effectively than others.