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Bullying Perpetration and Victimization in Youth: Associations with Irritability and Anxiety

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Abstract

Prior work on has demonstrated that irritability and anxiety are associated with bullying perpetration and victimization, respectively. Even though symptoms of irritability and anxiety often occur concurrently, few studies have tested their interactive effects on perpetration or victimization. The current study recruited 131 youths from a broader program of research that examines the pathophysiology and treatment of pediatric irritability and anxiety. Two moderation tests were performed to examine concurrent irritability and anxiety symptoms and their relation to perpetration and victimization of bullying. More severe anxiety was associated with greater victimization. However, more severe irritability was associated with, not just greater perpetration, but also greater victimization. An irritability-by-anxiety interaction demonstrated that youths with more severe irritability and lower levels of anxiety engaged in more perpetration. Our findings suggest a more nuanced approach to understanding how the commonly comorbid symptoms of irritability and anxiety interact in relation to peer-directed behavior in youths.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21HD093912) to JJ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Wolf Hall Suite 108, 105 The Green, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Hung-Wei Bernie Chen

  2. School of Social Welfare, University At Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    Erin S. Gardner

  3. Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Tessa Clarkson & Johanna M. Jarcho

  4. Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Nicholas R. Eaton

  5. Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jillian Lee Wiggins

  6. San Diego State University/University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jillian Lee Wiggins

  7. Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA

    Ellen Leibenluft

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  1. Hung-Wei Bernie Chen
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  2. Erin S. Gardner
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  3. Tessa Clarkson
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  5. Jillian Lee Wiggins
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  6. Ellen Leibenluft
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  7. Johanna M. Jarcho
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Correspondence to Hung-Wei Bernie Chen.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Chen, HW.B., Gardner, E.S., Clarkson, T. et al. Bullying Perpetration and Victimization in Youth: Associations with Irritability and Anxiety. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 53, 1075–1082 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-021-01192-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-021-01192-9

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