B4657 - Investigating the links between bullying and youth violence - 26/07/2024
Successful violence interventions depend on the identification of upstream risk factors, an understanding of their relative importance, and how they relate to each other. The project outlined in this proposal would focus on examining bullying as a potential risk factor. Bullying is a common, worldwide social problem, which tends to peak in early to mid-adolescence as children develop greater independence, form new peer groups, shape their adult identities and behavioural patterns. There can be an overlap between bullying and being bullied – ‘bully-victims’ are those who bully others and who are bullied themselves. The pathway from bullying behaviours in childhood and early adolescence to violent behaviour in young adulthood could be causal, or could reflect common factors that predispose young people to both being a bully or a victim and to later violence, such as abuse, negative peer group influences, low connectedness to school, and poor academic achievement.