ROLES IN BULLYING BEHAVIOR AND EYSENCK'S PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Objective – The aim of the present study was to assess if girls and boys who are classified as bullies, victims, bully/victims and neutral differ in Eysenck's personality dimensions.  Subjects and method – Three hundred and seventy-two children, age range 10 to 14 years (mean age 12.3±1.6 years) completed a School Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) and the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ Junior). To examine whether there are differences in the studied dimensions of personality with regard to their roles in bullying behavior and the gender of the respondents, we used one–way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey HSD Post Hoc analysis.  Results – Based on the results of the SRQ, 57% of children were classified as involved in bullying behavior, either as bullies (13%), victims (16%) or bullies/victims (28%), while 41% were neutral. Girls showed significantly higher levels of neuroticism (F (1.325) = 9.983, p<0.001) and dissimulation tendency (F(1.331) = 7.270, p<0.05) than boys, while boys showed significantly higher levels of psychoticism (F(1.331) = 37.632, p<0.001). Bullies and bully/victims had higher levels of extraversion (F(3.323) = 3.105, p <0.05) while victims and bully/victims were found to have higher levels of neuroticism (F (3.325) = 20.390, p<0.001) compared to neutral. Significantly higher levels of psychoticism (F (3.331) = 13.929, p<0.001) were found for bully/victims in relation to bullies, victims and neutrals. Victims had significantly higher levels of psychoticism in relation to neutral, and bullies in relation to victims and neutrals. Significantly higher levels of affinity towards dissimulation (F (3.331) = 23.916, p<0.001) were found for neutrals in relation to bullies and bully/victims, and for victims in relation to bullies and bully/victims.  Conclusion – Differences in Eysenck’s personality dimensions were found with regard to gender and role in bullying behavior. A higher level of psychoticism was found in boys, while girls had a higher level of neuroticism and tendency to dissimulation. Bullies and bully/victims had a significantly higher level of psychoticism than victims, and victims had significantly higher levels of dissimulation tendencies in relation to bullies and bully/victims. Differences in the level of psychoticism and tendency to dissimulation are factors that distinguish between bullies and bully/victims in relation to victims and the neutral subjects. The results of this study show that Eysenck’s personality dimensions could be an important variable in understanding bullying behavior.