Am I a bully? Relationship between aggressive behaviors and self-admission of being a bully in primary school children
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- This study has been carried out with the financial support of Barça Foundation. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in this study lie entirely with the authors.
Abstract
The present research focuses on the self-admission of being a bully in primary school children who bully, and studies it in relation to sex, educational stage and type of bullying behavior. Our objective was to understand better the relationship between aggressive behaviors and bullying self-admission. We hypothesized aggressive behaviors would be related to bullying self-admission. A total of 4646 primary school students aged from 7 to 12 years participated in this correlational study. The EBIPQ questionnaire was administered to evaluate children’s aggressive behaviors, whereas bullying self-admission was evaluated through a direct question. From the total of participants, 14.9 % were considered bullies, and 4.4 % frequent bullies, according to their responses to the EBIPQ. Among bullies, 21.4 % admitted having bullied others, and this percentage increased to 32 % for frequent bullies. Self-admission of being a bully was independent of sex and educational stage. On the other hand, some aggressive behaviors were more associated than others to self-admission of being a bully. Results suggest reluctance in children to consider themselves as bullies, especially in some types of aggressive behaviors. Finally, we discuss the need to study further the factors influencing the self-admission of being a bully.
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