A transactional model of bullying and victimization

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to develop and test a transactional model, based on longitudinal data, capable to describe the existing interrelation between maternal behavior and child bullying and victimization experiences over time. The results confirmed the existence of such a model for bullying, but not for victimization in terms of maternal involvement, although a transactional relationship was supported for both bullying and victimization when considering conflict between parents and children. More specifically, the study's results show that maternal involvement, including monitoring, predicts negatively both the initial value of bullying and its degree of change over time. In other words, the more a parent is involved, and the closer her supervision is, the less possible it is for her child to participate in bullying others activity. Moreover, the findings show that increases in bullying behavior on the part of the child cause a reduction in maternal involvement and monitoring over time. Finally, initial conflict between parents and children influence both bullying and victimization, and in turn, the development of bullying and victimization affects parent-child conflict. Hence, the findings of this study offer support to the hypothesis that parental and child behavior reciprocally influence each other, rather than one shaping the other in a unidirectional fashion. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.