Copyright Malvin Porter, Jr. 2010 - acumen - The University of ...

Bully/Victim (Also known as Aggressive Victims or Reactive Aggressors)
While the majority of children who are chronically targeted for peer abuse (Olweus,
1978; Perry, Kusel, & Perry, 1988) inhibit passive or submissive social behavior (Schwartz,
Dodge, & Coie, 1993), a proportion of children who are frequently bullied exhibit a more
aggressive behavioral style (Perry et al., 1992). These children pick on others in response to
being picked on themselves and are often more aggressive than bullies who are not also victims
(Haynie, Nansel, Eitel, Crump et al., 2001; Pellegrini, 1998; Perren & Alasker, 2006).
Bully/victims show the least positive psychosocial outcomes (T. Nansel et al., 2001a)
reflecting poorly modulated anger and irritability rather than a goal-oriented social strategy
(Schwartz, Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 1997). Bully/victims are behaviorally distinct from children
who are bullies (Toblin, Schwartza, Gorman, & Abou-ezzeddinea, 2005). Bully/victims display
an impaired self-regulation and social difficulties. Toblin et al. (2005) argue that bullies exhibit
aggression-related biases in social-cognitive processing, but do not suffer from other adjustment
problems; whereas, passive victims display nonassertive behaviors and reduced social
competence. Other studies found that bully/victims exhibit hyperactivity, anger dysregulation,
and a tendency to attribute hostile intent to peers in ambiguous social situations (Camodeca,
Goossens, Schuengel, & Meerum Terwogt, 2003; Haynie, Nansel, Eitel, Davis Crump et al.,
2001; Schwartz, 2000). Bully/victims differ from bullies in that they react more frequently with
physical aggression toward peers (Schwartz et al., 2002; Unnever, 2005).
Nonbully/Nonvictim (Also known as Bystanders)
Nonbully/nonvictims are children who are neither bullied by peers nor do they bully their
peers. Nonbully/nonvictims are typically bystanders who witness acts of bully victimization, but
are not involved as active participants in bully victimization (Conners-Burrow et al., 2009).
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