Bullies, victims and bully-victims: Psychosocial profiles and attribution styles

Abstract

This study aimed at examining the differences between bullies, victims, bully-victims and students that are non involved in peer violence in terms of their temperament, their degree of deviation from the typical in appearance or behaviour and the degree of their peer acceptance. Furthermore, the study compared the attributions used by the members of the above groups to explain the causes of peer violence. The participants were 377 Greek Cypriot early adolescents (mean age 11.6). It was found that bully-victims were more temperamental, more different than the typical student and more isolated socially than the other three groups to a statistically significant level (p < 0.05). Also, the same group members tended to use external attributions for explaining the causes of peer violence. © 2008 SAGE Publications.