Bullying, victimization, and psychopathy in early adolescents: The moderating role of social support

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential moderating role of perceived social support (school personnel, friends) and gender in the association between distinct psychopathic traits (callous-unemotional traits, narcissism, impulsivity) with bullying and victimization among 1442 Greek speaking early adolescents. Results suggested that all psychopathic traits were significant risk factors of bullying, whereas only impulsivity was a significant risk factor of victimization. Importantly, narcissism was the stronger explanatory factor of bullying. In addition, school and friend perceived social support acted as protective factors from victimization. Ιn addition, school and friend perceived social support moderated the link between narcissism and bullying. Specifically, narcissism was more strongly associated with bullying when school support was low and friend support was high. Finally, gender moderated the relationship only between narcissism and bullying, suggesting that the association between narcissism and bullying was stronger for boys compared to girls. Altogether, these findings highlight the importance of studying the influence of social context on youths with antisocial personality traits and their engagement in bullying and victimization. Findings might have implications for interventions aiming to reduce bullying and victimization.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychopathic traits
• social support
• bullying
• victimization
• early adolescents

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.