The Dynamics of Adolescent Bullying Behaviors: A Latent Transition Analysis

Previous studies have examined bullying involvement types and dynamic development, but some heterogeneous results have hindered the understanding of bullying mechanisms. The present study explored these through latent class analysis (LCA) and latent transition analysis (LTA), and further explored the roles of executive functioning, internalization problems, and externalization problems, both as predictors and as outcome factors. A total of 918 Chinese adolescents completed questionnaires measuring bullying involvement, executive functioning, internalization problems, and externalization problems at 6-month intervals. Results showed that the types of bullying involved could be categorized into four groups: pure victim, traditional bully-victim, mixed bully-victim, and uninvolved group, which exhibited different transfer probabilities over time. In this dynamic process, executive function, internalization, and externalization problems served as both predictor and outcome variables. These findings deepen our understanding of how bullying involvement changes over time and the impact of executive functioning, internalization, and externalization problems in maintaining and changing this dynamic process.