Gendered Pathways to Bullying Perpetration via Social Achievement Goals – Mediating Effects of Sense of Belonging and Non-inclusive Group Norms

Lisa Bardach*ab , Daniel Grafb, Takuya Yanagidab , Marlene Kollmayerb, Christiane Spielb & Marko Lüfteneggerbc a Department of Education, University of York, York, UKb Faculty of Psychology, Department of Applied Psychology: Work, Education, and Economy, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austriac Centre for Teacher Education, Department for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaLisa Bardach is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of York (United Kingdom). Lisa Bardach obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of Vienna in Austria. In her research, she focuses on adolescents’ adaptive development and the role of classroom climate (goal structure), and teachers’ and students’ non-cognitive attributes, particularly motivation.Daniel Graf is a PhD student at the University of Vienna. His research focuses on bullying (cyber and traditional) and sensation seeking in adolescence.Takuya Yanagida is a Postdoctoral Senior Scientist at the University of Vienna. His main research interests are bullying, statistical conclusion validity, robustness of statistical tests, and evaluation research.Marlene Kollmayer works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on gender stereotypes in education, toys and gender stereotypes, effects of gender-fair language, innovative methods for assessing gender stereotypes, and intervention research.Christiane Spiel is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include bullying, adolescents’ positive development and evaluation research.Marko Lüftenegger holds a position as Assistant Professor fof Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Centre of Teacher Education at the University of Vienna. His research and teaching focuses on motivation and emotions in education, high ability and giftedness, classroom environments that facilitate students’ (positive) development and the evaluation of educational programs.CONTACT Lisa Bardach lisa.bardach@york.ac.uk Department of Education, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UKABSTRACTThis study investigated the gender-specific effects of social achievement goals – i.e., social development goals, social demonstration approach goals, and social demonstration avoid goals – on bullying perpetration in a sample of 788 adolescents (53.3% girls), taking into account the mediating role of sense of belonging and non-inclusive group norms. Two-group structural equation modeling results indicated that social demonstration approach goals positively predicted bullying perpetration for both genders. For girls, higher social development goals and for boys, higher social avoidance goals decreased bullying perpetration. Gender-specific effects of belonging and non-inclusive group norms on bullying perpetration occurred. For boys, non-inclusive group norms mediated the relation between all social achievement goals and bullying perpetration. Implications for future research and (gender-sensitive) bullying interventions are discussed.