Capturing the complexity of bullying: novel approaches to understanding the co-occurrence of bullying perpetration and victimisation

• Grant number: 23/15665-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres
• Grantee: Andreas Bauer
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Childhood bullying in any role (i.e., as a bully, victim, or bully-victim) has persistent and pervasive negative health consequences across the life span. However, the majority of studies is limited by conceptual and methodological issues. The proposed project aims to address some of these shortcomings by using novel approaches to understanding the complex nature of bullying involvement. We will use cross-sectional and longitudinal data from three cohort studies across three countries, including the São Paulo Project on the Social Development of Children and Adolescents (SP-PROSO; N = 2,680), the Montevideo Project on the Social Development of Children and Adolescents (M-PROSO; N = 2,204), and the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Childhood and Adulthood (Z-PROSO; N = 1,360). The project consists of three studies, which will use adolescent self-report data on bullying involvement. In study 1, we will use network analysis to examine the interrelationships between bullying types in the SP-PROSO sample. Furthermore, we will investigate the importance of the school environment and whether results differ between public and private schools. Study 2 will complement and extend these results by applying a cross-cultural perspective. More precisely, we will examine country-level differences, comparing the network structures between SP-PROSO, M-PROSO, and Z-PROSO. Then, we will further extend this line of research by applying a longitudinal perspective with data from Z-PROSO. Study 3 will estimate joint trajectories of bullying perpetration and victimisation throughout adolescence to examine stability, change, and overlap of bullying roles. The proposed project represents an important next step in the bullying literature by applying advanced statistical methods to further disentangle the complexity of childhood bullying. (AU)