What is Bullying?
When talking about bullying, people instantly associate the one with aggressive behaviour is the bully that is oversimplified and misleading.
In fact, a precise definition of bullying is any well-planned action intended to harm somebody, including physical violence, verbal threats and discrimination, in order to gain a benefit or reward (e.g. money, materials, power etc.).
Features of Bullies：
1）Tend to be well-planned
2）Take advantages from others
3）Are calm and assess risk rationally
4）Select the weak as the target of bullying
5）Have no empathy for the victims
In 1987, Dodge and Coie's Two-Factor model categorised aggressor into two subtypes: Proactive Aggressor and Reactive Aggressor.
Proactive Aggressor - Bullies
1) Believe aggression is an effective way to achieve personal goals; 2) Observe the environment calmly and evaluate unfavourable factors then, deploy strategies that are beneficial to them; 3) Overestimate themselves and underestimate the consequences; 4) Have no empathy for the victims; and 5) Develop as early as 6.8-year-old
Reactive Aggressor - Defensive Revenger
1) Are often mistaken as bullies; 2) Distort in receiving and interpret external cues; 3) Attribute social cues externally: treating others’ behaviour as hostile and offensive; 4) Act aggressively to protect themselves; and 5) Develop as early as 4.4-year-old
If there is no early intervention for these children, negative short-term and long-term impacts would be generated in schools, families and societies, for instance, school bullying, peer victimisation, family violence or even killing and homicide. To read the definitions and the theories of reactive aggressor and proactive aggressor, please refer to Proactive Aggressors and Reactive Aggressors.
From One-factor to Two-factor Model on Aggression
One-factor Model (Bullies vs Victims)
When talking about bullying, people instantly associate the one with aggressive behaviour is the bully that is oversimplified and misleading.
A precise definition of bullying is any well-planned action intended to harm a victim to gain "benefits", which is not limited to something tangible but also something intangible.
From One-factor Model to Two-factor Model on Aggression
Two-factor Model
In 1987, three decades ago, Dodge and Coie first categorised aggression into two subtypes: Reactive Aggression and Proactive Aggression.
- Continuous studies have well-documented that:
- Reactive aggression is correlated with hot-bloodedness, impulsivity, hostile attributional bias, attention problems, anger arousal and deficits in social-skills (Raine et al., 2006; Cima & Raine, 2009).
- Proactive Aggression is associated with cold-bloodedness, goal-orientation, callous-unemotional traits, narcissism, delinquency and anti-social personality traits (Brendgen et al., 2006; Fontaine, 2006).
Reactive and proactive aggression can be developed as early 4.4 and 6.8-year-old, respectively (Dodge et al., 1997).
Without any early intervention for these children, negative short-term and long-term impacts would be generated in schools, families and societies, for instance, school bullying, peer victimisation, family violence, or even killing and homicide.
HIGH-RISK FACTORS OF PLACING CHILDREN AT-RISK FOR BULLYING AND AGGRESSION
Narcissism
The narcissistic index of proactive aggression among Hong Kong students is close and even higher than the American and Canadian youth offenders.
Parenting Style
Monster and Helicopter Parents are positively correlated with both proactive and reactive aggression.
Family Income
Family income >$30,000 have a more significant tendency of narcissistic traits and proactive aggression.
Family Structure
Intact single-father, single-mother