Different forms of online and face-to-face victimization among schoolchildren with pure and co-occurring dimensions of reactive and proactive aggression

This pioneer study filled up research gaps on differentiation and associations between various forms of online (general victimization, sexual victimization, individual, racial-discrimination, and vicarious racial discrimination) and face-to-face peer victimization (physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, and attacks on property) among schoolchildren with pure and co-occurring dimensions of reactive and proactive aggression and ordinary ones. Significant differences consistently found across four-domain online victimization between three groups of schoolchildren with pure and co-occurring dimensions of reactive and proactive aggression and ordinary schoolchildren; and the lowest mean scores were constantly found in pure reactive aggression group comparing with pure proactive and co-occurring forms of aggression. Although similar significant differences were found in four-factor multidimensional peer-victimization between three groups of schoolchildren with pure and co-occurring dimensions of reactive and proactive aggression and ordinary schoolchildren, the scores in pure reactive group were very comparable with pure proactive and co-occurring forms of aggression groups. Only pure reactive aggressor group of schoolchildren has no correlation between online and face-to-face peer victimization. The explanation may be based on Social Information Processing model that reactive aggressors are affected by hostile attributional bias, provocations mainly may happen in face-to-face interpersonal ambiguous situation rather than in the online world. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.