Atypical profile of the bully-victim: Case study

Abstract

Over the past few decades there has been increased concern about student's involvement in bullying as perpetrators or their victims. It was not until recently that various authors started to study bully-victims as group of children who do not fit the traditional stereotype of the bully or the victim. The objective of this article is to delineate somewhat atypical profile of a ten-year-old child who took part in school violence as a bully-victim. Social role in school violence was determined using Reynolds Bully Victimization Scales for Schools (Reynolds, 2003). The assessment of social sensitivity was performed by faux pas stories, while communication abilities were assessed using the second edition of The Children's Communication Checklist (Bishop, 2003). Our student achieved extremely high scores on both, bullying and victimization scale, which is typical for bully-victims. Psychological testing revealed a disharmonious profile, typical for children with developmental diagnosis (vIQ=82, mIQ=106). Most of these children show either externalizing or internalizing problems. However, in some cases students show clinically significant level of distress in both areas. It was revealed that our participant belong to this, rather rare group of children. Surprisingly, the level of school anxiety was in a normal range, suggesting that our student does not perceive the school as threatening or unsafe environment. This finding could be at least partly explained by his lack of advanced theory of mind (determined by faux pas stories) as well as by poor communication ability, especially in area of pragmatic competence.

Tokom poslednjih decenija beleži se porast interesovanja stručne javnosti za temu vršnjačkog nasilja i ulogu dece, bilo kao počinilaca, bilo kao žrtvi vršnjačkog nasilja. Tek su od nedavno istraživači počeli da proučavaju tzv. agresivne žrtve, koje se ne uklapaju u tradicionalne uloge počinioca i žrtve bulinga. Cilj ovog rada je da ocrta unekoliko atipičan profil desetogodišnjeg dečaka koji učestvuje u vršnjačkom nasilju kao agresivna žrtva. Psihološkim ispitivanjem utvrđen je disharmoničan nivo postignuća disgnostičkog tipa (vIQ=82, mIQ=106). Socijalne uloge u vršnjačkom nasilju utvrđene su Rejnoldsovom skalom za procenu nasilja i viktimizacije u školi (Reynolds, 2003). Socijalna senzitivnost je procenjena faux pas pričama, dok je sposobnost komunikacije ispitana primenom Komunikacione čekliste za decu (CCC-2, Bishop, 2003). Naš ispitanik je ostvario visoke skorove i na skali za procenu bulinga i na skali viktimizacije, što je tipično za agresivne žrtve. Većina ove dece je sklona internalizaciji ili eksternalizaciji psihičkih problema. Međutim, u nekim slučajevima, ispitanici ispoljavaju klinički signifikantan nivo patnje u obe oblasti. Upravo je ovakav, prilično redak rezultat, utvrđen i kod našeg ispitanika. Nivo anksioznosti, vezane za školsku sredinu bio je začuđujuće nizak, što upućuje na zaključak da, uprkos svemu, naš ispitanik ne doživljava školsku sredinu kao ugrožavajuće i nedovoljno bezbedno okruženje. Ovakav rezultat se bar delimično može objasniti njegovim nedostatkom viših nivoa teorije uma, kao i nedovoljno razvijenim komunikacionim sposobnostima, posebnom onim koje se odnose na pragmatsku kompetenciju.