Violence in Young Adults: Perpetration of Bullying and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the potential associations between adults’ experiences of bullying and self-reported life satisfaction. Methodology: The data were collected by an online self-report survey using the Google Form by contacting college/university teachers and circulating the form among students using E-mails and social media. The Multidimensional Bullying and Cyberbullying Scale was used to assess the bullying experiences of the students in the last 3 months. The Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale was used to measure self-reported life satisfaction. Results: Out of a total of 854 (males = 21.6 ± 3.55 years) students, a little more than half (53.9%) were not involved in any bullying, 16.4% were cyber victims, 3% were victims of classic bullying, and 10.9% were victims of both types of bullying. Pure perpetration was rare (<1%) and 14.9% of the participants reported victimizing others as well as being victims of bullying. The bully-victims, relative to other groups, were the most likely to express dissatisfaction in the domains of family life (χ2 = 29.00, P = 0.0001), friendships (χ2 = 52.11, P = 0.0001), living environment (χ2 = 23.75, P = 0.003), and overall rating (χ2 = 41.26, P = 0.0001). Multivariate stepwise regression analysis indicated that 4.2% of the variance was explained by the number of bullying victimization incidents and the number of perpetration incidents (F = 19.90, P = 0.0001). Conclusions: Educational institutions must take robust measures to raise awareness of bullying and implement effective strategies to protect the most vulnerable groups. Social-emotional educational programs that teach conflict resolution, social skills, and safe practices for navigating the remote platform need urgent attention.

Keywords

• bullying
• life satisfaction
• perpetration
• young adults