The relationship of self-esteem to bullying perpetration and peer victimization among schoolchildren and adolescents: A meta-analytic review

doi:10.1016/j.avb.2016.09.005

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Volume 31, November–December 2016, Pages 186-199

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2016.09.005 Get rights and content

Highlights

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The relationship between bullying and self-esteem was examined using a meta-analysis.
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Possible moderators (e.g. age, gender, methodological strategies) were also examined.
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It was found that peer victimization is negatively associated with self-esteem (r = − 0.27).
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A negative but trivial association was found (r = − 0.07) between perpetration & self-esteem.

Abstract

Bullying perpetration and peer victimization has long been considered an important social and clinical problem. Children and adolescents who are bullied are at increased risk for mental health problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and bullying behavior (i.e. perpetration and peer victimization) using meta-analytic procedures. Online databases up to June 2014 were searched, and bibliographies of retrieved studies were examined, for studies that examined the association between self-esteem and bullying perpetration/peer victimization in children and adolescents. From an original pool of 936 studies, 121 non duplicated studies were identified that met criteria for inclusion. Possible moderators (e.g. age, source of bullying assessment, year of publication, etc.) were also examined. In the analyses, using a random-effects model, it was found that peer victimization is negatively associated with self-esteem, with a mean effect size of r = − 0.27. A negative but trivial association was also found (r = − 0.07) between bullying behavior and self-esteem. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias. The implications of the meta-analytic findings for future research on bullying perpetration and peer victimization prevention are discussed.

Introduction

Bullying is a serious problem for school youth in both developed and developing countries (Liang et al., 2007, Smith et al., 1999). Research findings have shown that between 10 and 15% of students in grades three through six experience peer victimization at least once a week (Harachi et al., 1999, Nansel et al., 2001). Furthermore, bullying is not an isolated problem unique to specific culture but is prevalent worldwide (Chan and Wong, 2015a, Cook et al., 2009, Kanetsuna and Smith, 2002).

There is a plethora of empirical evidence during the past two decades demonstrating that bullying is prevalent across the elementary and secondary school years (Gini et al., 2008, Haynie et al., 2001, Nansel et al., 2001), and that it has serious consequences for both bullies and victims, since it has been found that it affects school achievement, pro-social skills, and the psychological well-being (e.g. Hawker and Boulton, 2000, Juvonen et al., 2003, Pepler et al., 2008). Furthermore, bullying researchers have expanded their scientific interest in the investigation of adult bullying, mainly referring to bullying incidents that take place at workplace, but also to other places such as sports places, and prisons (Fenclau et al., 2013, Ireland and Qualter, 2008).

Section snippets

Definition of bullying

Bullying is commonly defined as a specific type of aggressive behavior that involves intent to cause harm, occurs repeatedly, and involves a power imbalance (Olweus, 1999). Bullying has four main characteristics: (1) is an intentional behavior, (2) which could cause harm, (3) involves a power imbalance, and (4) occurs over time. Although popularity of bullying research has increased dramatically over recent years, it seems that there is some luck of clarity in the literature regarding the

Etiological factors of bullying

In relation to the etiological factors that might cause the two indicators of bullying experiences (i.e. perpetration/victimization), several hypotheses have been proposed. For example, some scholars have related bullying perpetration to insecure attachment during childhood (Monks, Smith, & Swettenham, 2005). Other researchers using Social Learning Theory as a theoretical framework, argue that the impact of family variables on bullying perpetration may be via modeling, with teenagers learning

Demographic variables and bullying

Demographic variables such as gender and age have also been related to both bullying perpetration and peer victimization. Several studies examined whether different patterns of relations vary between boys and girls or between children and adolescents across different forms of aggression (i.e., physical, relational and verbal). One of the most robust outcomes is that boys are engaged in more physical aggression and bullying perpetration than girls and that this difference in physical aggression

Bullying and self-esteem

One of the factors that is widely conceived as central in bullying is self-esteem. Self-esteem is defined as a positive or negative orientation toward oneself, as an overall evaluation of one's worth or value. According to Rosenberg (1979) self-esteem seems to play an important role in child's development, since it forms the basis of self-attributions about the extent to which one is connected to others in meaningful and satisfying ways. Furthermore, it reflects children's success in adapting

Previous meta-analyses on bullying

To date, six meta-analytic studies have been conducted examining issues related to bullying (Cook et al., 2010, Hawker and Boulton, 2000, Lereya et al., 2013, Nakamoto and Schwartz, 2010, Reijntjes et al., 2010, Ttofi et al., 2012). However, although the above meta-analyses have examined various issues related to bullying perpetration and peer victimization, very few have examined the direct effect bullying might have on children's self-esteem. Hawker and Boulton (2000), reviewing studies

The aim of this study

The current meta-analytic study aims to provide a quantitative review on the association between bullying and self-esteem. Self-esteem is considered as one of the most vital factors in children's physical and psychological adjustment (Branden, 1994), and in many cases has been found to serve as a protective factor of emotional well-being or difficulties in childhood and early adolescence (Tambelli et al., 2012). Thus, it is important to investigate whether this psychological attribute is

Research strategy

A search of the following databases was conducted in order to identify relevant articles for this review: PsycINFO, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. The database searches used the following terms: (self-esteem OR self-worth OR self-concept OR self-evaluation OR self-image) AND (bully* OR bulli* OR victim* OR peer violen* OR peer rejection). All articles that had been published and all dissertations that had been presented prior to the June 2014 were considered for

Results

Before we proceed to the main analysis, we examined whether publication bias had an influence on our main findings. For that, several approaches were applied. First, Orwin's fail-safe N was computed. For peer victimization, the fail-safe N was 158. This means that 158 missing studies should be located and included in order the effect size to exceed 0.05. Put another way, there would be need to be 158 missing studies for the effect to be nullified. For bullying perpetration, the corresponding

Discussion

The purpose of the current meta-analysis was to examine whether there is a significant relationship between self-esteem and peer victimization and between self-esteem and bullying perpetration. With regard to the first research question (RQ1), the results indicated that there is a significant negative association between self-esteem and peer victimization (r = − 0.27), although moderate in magnitude (Hemphill, 2003). A vast number of criteria (e.g. fail-safe N, Begg & Mazumdar rank correlation

Conclusion

In sum, in this meta-analysis examined the association between self-esteem and peer victimization. It was found that victims of bullying perpetration tend to have low self-esteem (r = − 0.27), which is considered as medium effect size. Moreover, we examined the association between self-esteem and bullying perpetration. Contrary to the findings from previous studies, the results from this meta-analysis showed that there is a very weak relationship (r = − 0.07), suggesting that other etiological

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¹: Department of Psychology, Gallos Campus, Retymnon 74100, Greece.

²: Studies preceded by an * were included in the meta-analysis.

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