Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
197,768 studies31 sourcesUpdated 34 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Frontiers in Psychiatry

The co-occurrence of victimization, perpetration, and bystander responses in adolescent school bullying: a network analysis with model-based perturbation simulations

  • Xiaoyan Qiu1
  • Xiaoqun Liu2
  • Yumeng Miao3
  • Pousheng Jiang4,5,6,7
  • Ruixiang Gao4,5,6,7
7 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Management, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine
  2. 2Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University
  3. 3School of Politics and Public Administration, Hunan Normal University
  4. 4School of Psychology, South China Normal University
  5. 5Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University
  6. 6Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University
  7. 7Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education
Read full textPDFDOICite

Abstract

Background: School bullying threatens school safety and adolescent health. Research often treats victimization, perpetration, and bystander responses as distinct forms of involvement, leaving their within-person co-occurrence poorly understood.

Methods: Using data from 7,913 students, this study applied network analysis and Node Identification and Response Analysis (NIRA) to examine behavioral co-occurrence and conditional associations across these dimensions and identify candidatenodes for future experimental validation.

Results: Co-occurrence of all three dimensions exceeded that expected under independence (3.16%; O/E = 4.08, 95% CI [3.75, 4.43]), and formed an interconnected network with multiple cross-dimensional associations. Same-form victimization and perpetration, including verbal teasing, were positively connected, as were pro-bully bystander responses—particularly joining in bullying—and perpetration. Reverse-coded defender behaviors, including failure to intervene or report to adults, had limited direct connections with perpetration but yielded the largest projected changes in NIRA. In the primary NIRA analyses that excluded the perturbed node from the outcome, simulated mitigation of five bystander response nodes was associated with significant projected changes in the remaining 25-item aggregate score (Δ = 0.15–0.54; all ps_FDR < .001). BYS1 (failure to intervene) and BYS2 (failure to report) showed the largest projected changes under simulated threshold mitigation, with differences of −0.54 and −0.43 points, respectively.

Conclusion: These exploratory simulations generate hypotheses that targeting reverse-coded defender bystander responses and promoting active intervention and adult reporting may warrant further investigation in future intervention studies. However, causality and real-world effectiveness remain to be further validated.

Related

  1. Teacher and peer support and adolescent mental health and well-being in the context of cyberbullying victimization: a cross-national multilevel study
    Kofi Nyantakyi Appiah, Augustine Osei Boakye, Nathanael Adu
    BMC Public HealthPeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Epidemiology & public healthCrossref
  2. When school feels unsafe: bullying victimization, school climate, and adolescent emotional well-being
    Millicent Aziku
    Frontiers in Public HealthPeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textEpidemiology & public healthCrossrefEurope PMCPMC
  3. Peer victimization and family dynamics in the association between childhood abuse and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury: a cross-sectional moderated mediation study
    Shengnan Nie, Jun Cao, Qiang Ke +1
    BMC PsychologyPeer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textPsychiatry & mental healthPMC
  4. Teacher-student perceptual mismatch in positive co-experiences is associated with adolescent depression, bullying victimization, and suicidality
    Yuanyuan Wang, Hongyu Shi, Xiang Gu +3
    Frontiers in public healthPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textEpidemiology & public healthEurope PMCCrossref
  5. Kimura Disease in an Adolescent With Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: A Rare Co-occurrence of T Helper 2-Driven Eosinophilic Lymphadenopathy and Autoimmune Endocrinopathy
    Khalid Al Khathlan, Abdulrahman Aldoukhi, Abdulrahman M Aldhilan +4
    CureusPeer-reviewedCC BYFull textGeneral medicineEurope PMC

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{qiu2026cooccurrence,
  title = {{The co-occurrence of victimization, perpetration, and bystander responses in adolescent school bullying: a network analysis with model-based perturbation simulations}},
  author = {Xiaoyan Qiu and Xiaoqun Liu and Yumeng Miao and Pousheng Jiang and Ruixiang Gao},
  journal = {Frontiers in Psychiatry},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1994414},
  url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1994414/full},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - The co-occurrence of victimization, perpetration, and bystander responses in adolescent school bullying: a network analysis with model-based perturbation simulations
AU  - Xiaoyan Qiu
AU  - Xiaoqun Liu
AU  - Yumeng Miao
AU  - Pousheng Jiang
AU  - Ruixiang Gao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/21
JO  - Frontiers in Psychiatry
DO  - 10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1994414
UR  - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1994414/full
AB  - Background: School bullying threatens school safety and adolescent health. Research often treats victimization, perpetration, and bystander responses as distinct forms of involvement, leaving their within-person co-occurrence poorly understood.  Methods: Using data from 7,913 students, this study applied network analysis and Node Identification and Response Analysis (NIRA) to examine behavioral co-occurrence and conditional associations across these dimensions and identify candidatenodes for future experimental validation.  Results: Co-occurrence of all three dimensions exceeded that expected under independence (3.16%; O/E = 4.08, 95% CI [3.75, 4.43]), and formed an interconnected network with multiple cross-dimensional associations. Same-form victimization and perpetration, including verbal teasing, were positively connected, as were pro-bully bystander responses—particularly joining in bullying—and perpetration. Reverse-coded defender behaviors, including failure to intervene or report to adults, had limited direct connections with perpetration but yielded the largest projected changes in NIRA. In the primary NIRA analyses that excluded the perturbed node from the outcome, simulated mitigation of five bystander response nodes was associated with significant projected changes in the remaining 25-item aggregate score (Δ = 0.15–0.54; all ps_FDR < .001). BYS1 (failure to intervene) and BYS2 (failure to report) showed the largest projected changes under simulated threshold mitigation, with differences of −0.54 and −0.43 points, respectively.  Conclusion: These exploratory simulations generate hypotheses that targeting reverse-coded defender bystander responses and promoting active intervention and adult reporting may warrant further investigation in future intervention studies. However, causality and real-world effectiveness remain to be further validated.
SN  - 1664-0640
ER  -