Temperament and character in victims of school bullying

ABSTRACT

Background: Bullying involves repeated and over time targeted intimidation or humiliation. The bully can resort to a number of aggressive behaviours to make the target or victim feel powerless. However, bullying entails more than aggression a power imbalance exists between the bully and the target .Bullying takes place among young children as well as adults in a variety of settings, but most of the research focuses on children and youth in schools. Aim: To evaluate temperament and character in victims of school bullying in comparison with a control group using the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory. Method: 41 victims of school bullying and 40 control group participants between the ages of 8 and 17 years studying in English medium schools in South Delhi were included in the study. Participants were excluded if participants were younger than 8 years, could not read English and parental consent was not obtained. Illinois Bully Scale and the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory was administered to the participants. Results: According to child and parent data, victims of school bullying had lower scores on self-directedness, cooperativeness, reward dependence and persistence compared with control group and significantly higher scores on novelty seeking and harm avoidance .According to parent data only, victims of school bullying significantly differed from a control group on self-transcendence with higher fantasy scores and lower spirituality scores. Conclusion: Victims of school bullying have a different temperament and character profile compared to control group .Hence, up to a certain age there is still a potential for changing some temperamental characteristics, and consequently timely interventions could prevent the onset of victimization or minimize the severity of clinical outcomes in school children