Attachment and psychopathology: Antecedents of bullying and victimization

A deeper understanding of the underlying cognitive-affective processes in bullies and victims is important given the substantial amount of peer violence and victimization that occurs in schools amongst both sexes, and the long-standing problems associated with it. One way to understand the development of social problems is through attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1983, & 1988). Attachment theory delineates a developmental progression from complete dependency on the caregiver for survival and affect regulation to a sense of individuality, self-reliance, self regulation of affect, and social competency. Elementary school is a critical time in the development of children's social competencies and a time when problems in social interactions may pave the way to later psychopathology and further social problems. This study investigated the connection between attachment and psychopathology in an elementary school-aged sample of identified bullies, victims, and bully-victims.;It was hypothesized that, after controlling for age and gender, there would be differences between bullies, victims, and bully-victims in attachment and internalizing psychopathology. Additionally, it was expected that attachment and psychopathology would predict bullying, victimization, and bully-victimization over and above age and gender. The Separation Anxiety Test (SAT; Slough & Greenberg, 1990) was used to measure representations of attachment-related constructs. Internalizing psychopathology was measured by the Internalizing Problems scales on the ASEBA CBCL and TRF (Achenbach, 2001). Peer nominations were used to assess bullying/victimization; teacher nominations did not prove valid and reliable, thus reducing the sample size from 71 to 50. Issues related to the measurement of attachment, psychopathology, and bully/victim status in school-aged children are discussed.;Results revealed partial support for the hypotheses, but patterns in the data were not consistent enough to warrant strong conclusions. Age clearly contributed to group differences in both attachment and teacher-rated psychopathology. Prediction models yielded some evidence indicating that attachment-related variables were related to bullying and victimization, but attachment did not predict bullying and/or victimization over and above gender and age. Internalized psychopathology (as rated by teachers, but not by parents) did contribute to prediction of victimization and bully-victimization over and above the covariates. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.