Latent profiles of offline/cyber bullying experiences among Korean students and its relationship with peer conformity

Abstract

Today's digital native adolescents are at risk of experiencing bullying not only in traditional offline contexts but also in online social contexts. Yet, little is known about the joint occurrence of offline perpetration and victimization, as well as online perpetration and victimization in early adolescence, despite its potential for providing important implications for areas of intervention. The current study examined 375 adolescents (girls = 52.5%, age range = 10-11 years old) in Korea and identified four unique groups such as high-, online-, offline-, and low-risk groups, using 42 items measuring offline and online perpetration and victimization, through latent profile analysis. Logistic regression showed that antisocial peer conformity predicted membership in the high-(AOR = 2.46, p < .05), offline- (AOR = 3.10, p <.01), and online-risk (AOR = 2.94, p < .001) groups, compared to the low-risk group. As for peer conformity, all groups involving bullying experiences showed more antisocial peer conformity than the low-risk group (F-3,F-371 = 12.973, p < .001). Although all risk groups identified in this study-high-risk, online-risk, offline-risk-experienced both perpetration and victimization, there is a clear paucity of programs concerning the joint occurrence of bullying perpetration and victimization in Korea. Future interventions that consider the joint occurrence of bullying perpetration and victimization in offline and online contexts may be effective for preventing and reducing maladaptive peer interactions among adolescents in today's digital era. Moreover, as antisocial peer conformity was demonstrated in all bully experiences regardless of their domain, bullying prevention programs should also address the social context of youth in terms of peer relationships rather than its current focus on individual factors.