Bullying and cyberbullying: Do personality profiles matter in adolescence?

Abstract

Bullying and cyberbullying represent pervasive issues in adolescence because they are very common situations with significant implications for concurrent and later adjustment. It is crucial to investigate the extent to which youths’ personality characteristics may represent a vulnerability to becoming (cyber)bullies or (cyber)victims. However, research mostly has focused on associations with single personality dimensions rather than overall functioning patterns, studies on personality profiles in relation to bullying are limited and under-examined, and no evidence for cyberbullying is available. Within Latent Profile Analysis (i.e., LPA), the present study aimed to identify personality profiles in a sample of 426 Italian early adolescents (Mage = 12; 51 % female), according to the Big Five Model (i.e., Extraversion-E, Agreeableness-A, Conscientiousness-C, Emotional Stability-ES, Openness-O), in connection with traditional bullying and cyberbullying roles (i.e., uninvolved, victims, bullies, bullies/victims). Three profiles emerged with specific associations with (cyber)bullying roles: (1) Resilient (with high scores in all traits) which tended to be uninvolved; (2) Undercontrolled (with low C, average-to-high E, and average-to-low ES, and O), which was more likely to be both bullies and victims, both offline and online; and (3) Overcontrolled (with very low E, average C, and average-to-low ES and O), which was more likely to be associated with traditional (but not online) victimization. The results fill a research gap, demonstrating that specific youths’ personality configurations may be associated with different roles in traditional and online bullying.