Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Factors Associated With Bullying

The purpose of the current study was to understand the association between bullying experiences (i.e., bullying, victimization, and defending) and social, emotional, and cognitive factors. The social factor was social skills (i.e., empathy, assertion, cooperation, responsibility); the emotional factor was emotional difficulties (i.e., personal adjustment, internalizing problems, school problems), and the cognitive factor was executive functioning skills (i.e., self-monitoring, inhibitory control, flexibility, emotional regulation). Data on students' perceptions of their own social skills, emotional difficulties, and bullying role behavior were collected from 246 sixth- through eighth-grade students. Teachers provided reports of students' executive functioning skills. Results indicated that (a) emotional difficulties were significantly and positively associated with victimization for boys and girls, (b) emotional difficulties were significantly and positively associated with defending for girls, (c) executive functioning was significantly and negatively associated with defending for boys, and (d) social skills were significantly and positively related to defending behavior for boys and girls. These results emphasize the importance of examining the social, emotional, and cognitive factors associated with bullying. Social skills and emotional and executive functioning appear to vary systematically across bullying roles and should be considered when developing targeted social–emotional interventions to stop bullying, increase defending, and support victims or those at risk for victimization.