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Bullying at school is a serious social problem that influences the wellbeing of everyone involved, that is, victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. Among the many health and psychological problems that these individuals may develop, emotion dysregulation appears to be a common marker. To date, however, it remains unclear whether bullying experienced during the school years is associated with emotion dysregulation also in adulthood. In this study, by adopting a retrospective approach, we investigated whether involvement in bullying at school—either as a bully, victim, or bystander—could put these individuals at risk of presenting deficits in emotion regulation in adulthood, as assessed with behavioral (explicit) and physiological (implicit) indexes (i.e., skin conductance), and whether the association between the involvement in bullying and emotion regulation was direct or mediated by other factors, such as somatic complaints and sensation seeking. A total of 58 young adults were asked to control their emotional reactions in front of images with strong emotional content, and to explicitly evaluate them with ratings, while their arousal was measured through skin conductance. They also responded to questionnaires about retrospective involvement in bullying, somatic complaints, and sensation seeking. Results revealed that victimization and bystander behavior were directly and negatively associated with emotion regulation as assessed with skin conductance, whereas bullying was positively associated with implicit emotion regulation through the mediation of sensation seeking. Interestingly, emotion regulation as assessed with explicit ratings was not associated with any of the characteristics of the participants. Our study suggests that being directly (as victim) but also indirectly (as bystander) involved in bullying at school time is associated with difficulties in emotional wellbeing in adulthood. Furthermore, it reveals that behavioral and physiological indexes associated with emotion regulation dissociate, suggesting that subtle physiological changes may remain hidden from explicit behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to increase our knowledge regarding the role that emotional functioning can play in the genesis of bullying and victimization at school for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, we examined the unique associations of basic emotions (anger and fear) and moral emotions (shame and guilt) with bullying and victimization in children with an ASD and a control group with typically developing (TD) children. The study included 130 children and young adolescents (64 with ASD, 66 TD, M age 140 months), who filled out self-report questionnaires. The main findings showed that in both groups less guilt and more anger were associated with more bullying. More fear was associated with more victimization in TD children only. Yet, more anger was also strongly and uniquely associated with more victimization in children with ASD, but not in TD children. These outcomes support the idea that lack of guilt is a pivotal antecedent of bullying for TD and ASD children. However, unlike TD children, the dysregulation of anger seems to play an important role in victimization as well as bullying in children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main aim of the study relates to the links between bullying and victimization on the one hand and reactive and proactive aggression on the other. In addition, we also investigated stability and incidence of bullying and victimization. At age 7, 236 children were rated on bullying and victimization using peer reports. At age 8, 242 children were rated again. Two hundred and fifteen children (114 girls and 101 boys) were present at both time points. Reactive and proactive aggression was assessed by teachers. The results showed that bullies and bully/victims were both reactively and proactively aggressive, while victims were only reactively aggressive. A moderate degree of stability of bullying and victimization was found, with bullying being more stable than victimization. Boys were more often bullies than girls and more stable than girls in victimization. Stable victims and stable bully/victims were more reactively aggressive than their unstable counterparts. The relevance of the outcomes to preventing future maladjustment and suggestions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]