From victim to victimizer: Hostility, anger, and depression as mediators of the bullying victimization-bullying perpetration association

The principal aim of this study was to test one cognitive (i.e., hostility) and two emotional (anger and depression) variables as possible mediators of the well-documented association between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration. Using data from the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence (ISBSV), a sample of 718 pre-adolescent/early adolescent children (343 boys and 375 girls) provided self-report data in three waves, with six months between waves. Consistent with predictions, hostility and depression correlated equally well with prior bullying victimization but only hostility successfully mediated the relation between prior bullying victimization and subsequent bullying perpetration. Like hostility, anger successfully predicted bullying perpetration but unlike hostility it failed to mediate the victimization-perpetration association. Knowing that hostility provides a link between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration has both theoretical and practical implications. With respect to theory, the current results are largely consistent with the control model of criminal lifestyle development. From the standpoint of practice, intervention programs designed to address the cognitive construct of hostility, which appears to serve as a conduit through which bullying victimization leads to bullying perpetration, may not only help bullied children cope with the trauma of victimization but may also disrupt the victim to victimizer cycle responsible for creating an ever-expanding supply of new bullies.