Adolescents' explicit and implicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers with different bullying participant roles

J Loes Pouwels; Tessa A M Lansu; Antonius H N Cillessen

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2017.02.008

Adolescents' explicit and implicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers with different bullying participant roles

J Exp Child Psychol. 2017 Jul:159:219-241. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.02.008. Epub 2017 Mar 19.

Authors

J Loes Pouwels¹, Tessa A M Lansu², Antonius H N Cillessen²

Affiliations

¹ Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.pouwels@psych.ru.nl.
² Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

PMID: 28315590
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.02.008

Abstract

This study examined how adolescents evaluate bullying at three levels of specificity: (a) the general concept of bullying, (b) hypothetical peers in different bullying participant roles, and (c) actual peers in different bullying participant roles. Participants were 163 predominantly ethnic majority adolescents in The Netherlands (58% girls; M_age=16.34years, SD=0.79). For the hypothetical peers, we examined adolescents' explicit evaluations as well as their implicit evaluations. Adolescents evaluated the general concept of bullying negatively. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers in the bullying roles depended on their own role, but adolescents' implicit evaluations of hypothetical peers did not. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical peers and actual peers were different. Hypothetical bullies were evaluated negatively by all classmates, whereas hypothetical victims were evaluated relatively positively compared with the other roles. However, when adolescents evaluated their actual classmates, the differences between bullies and the other roles were smaller, whereas victims were evaluated the most negatively of all roles. Further research should take into account that adolescents' evaluations of hypothetical peers differ from their evaluations of actual peers.

Keywords: Attitudes; Bullying; Implicit; Participant roles; Peer Victimization; Social cognition.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Attitude*
Bullying*
Crime Victims / psychology*
Female
Humans
Imitative Behavior*
Internal-External Control
Male
Netherlands
Peer Group*
Psychology, Adolescent*
Role
Social Identification
Sociological Factors*
Students / psychology