Explaining physical, verbal, and social bullying among bullies, victims of bullying, and bully-victims: Assessing the integrated approach between social control and lifestyles-routine activities theories

This study examined the direct impacts of risk factor (delinquent peer associations) and mediating effects of social controls on three types of bullying status: perpetration, victimization, and perpetration-victimization in each of the following: physical, verbal, and social bullying. The objective of the study is to provide an important explanatory test of the applicability of the integrated approach between social control and lifestyles-routine activities theories. Logistic regression models were estimated using a subsample of 14,627 students from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey. Findings revealed that adolescents who associated with delinquent peers were more likely to be bullies, victims, and bully-victims in physical, verbal, and social bullying. Even after controlling for social controls, it still remained significant. Adolescents attached to parents, peers, and teachers were less likely to be bullies and bully-victims in physical, verbal, and social bullying with the exception of teacher attachment for social bullying. Also, teacher attachment was not significant for all three subtypes of bullying among victim group members.