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

Linking Social Support and Bullying
Several studies have linked social support and bullying. One study found that children
who are not involved in bullying perceive greater social support from teachers than do bullies
and that both nonbully/nonvictims and bullies report significantly higher frequencies of peer
social support than victims and bully-victims (Malecki & Demaray, 2003). Other studies found
that children who are victimized exhibited low peer acceptance, support, reciprocity, and
friendship (Perren & Alasker, 2006; Perren & Hornung, 2005; Rigby, 2000). These children are
nearly twice as likely as nonvictims to report that they do not have teacher with whom they can
discuss their problems (Furlong & Chung, 1995).
An important way that bullies and victims may differ from children not involved in
bullying is in the amount of social support they seek and receive (Conners-Burrow et al., 2009).
Two broad theories help explain the relationship between social support and children’s
functioning have emerged (S. Cohen, Gottlieb, & Underwood, 2000). The main effect model
asserts that social support has a positive benefit for improving overall psychological well-being
of all children. The stress buffering theory asserts that social support benefits children who are at
risk or under stress by buffering them from negative internalizing problems associated with
bullying. These models can be used to explain the role of social support in improving QOL/LS in
the lives of children who are victimized by bullies (Malecki & Demaray, 2004). Studies have
found that victims and bully/victims generally reported less social support than bullies or
comparison youth (Demaray & Malecki, 2003; Malecki & Demaray, 2004). Conners-Burrow and
colleagues (2009) found that children who were not involved in bullying reported less depression
and more social support than children involved in bullying, and bully/victims were the most at-
risk group. Results indicated that in all four bully status groups, children reported fewer
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