Attachment and bullying: A comparison between bullies, victims, bully-victims and non-involved in the school age.

Journal title MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
Author/s Lorenza Di Pentima, Sara Ramelli
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2020/2 Language Italian
Pages 27 P. 119-145 File size 328 KB
DOI 10.3280/MAL2020-002007
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Aim of the present study was to analyze the phenomenon of bullying according to the at-tachment perspective, comparing bullies, bullies-victims, victims and non-involved in mental models and socio-emotional behaviors (in particular aggression, avoidance of interaction, manifestations of anxiety and depression). Participants were 365 children, 208 males (57%) and 157 females (43%), from 5 schools in Rome, aged between 8 and 11 years (M = 9.28, DS = 0.81). Instruments administered were: Peer Nomination (Menesini, 2003), to identify the roles of bully, victim, bully-victim and non-involved, Separation Anxiety Test (Attili, 2001) for the measurement of mental models of attachment and Social Emotional Dimension Scale (Ianes, & Savelli, 1994) for the evaluation of socio-emotional behaviors. Results show, in comparison with the non-involved, bullies are more ambivalent and avoidant, while victims and bully-victims mostly show ambivalent mental models. Moreover bullies, bully-victims and victims have higher levels of aggression, avoidance of interaction with peers and inap-propriate behavior.

Keywords: Mental models of attachment, bullies, victims, bully-victims, school age.

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Lorenza Di Pentima, Sara Ramelli, Attaccamento e bullismo: un confronto tra bulli, vittime, bulli-vittime e non-coinvolti in età scolare in "MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA" 2/2020, pp 119-145, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2020-002007