Bullies, victims, and bully-victims: a longitudinal examination of the effects of bullying-victimization experiences on youth well-being

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how children's involvement in bullying (as bullies, victims and bully-victims) is related to longer term levels of various internalizing problems such as depression and self-harm. Design/methodology/approach - A prospective longitudinal design was used based on data from the Swedish Seven Schools Longitudinal Study. The authors also examined whether bullying/victimization experiences predict changes in internalizing problems. Findings - Results vary depending on children's participation in bullying behavior as bullies, victims or bully-victims. Originality/value - Overall, the paper's findings highlight the importance of uniqueness of different bullying/victimization experiences. This study showed that the bully-victims, followed by the victimized group, were more at risk for displaying internalizing problems. Bullies showed neither higher internalizing problems nor increases over time in symptom levels compared to the youths who were neither bullies nor victims.