Predicting Bullying Heterogeneity with the HEXACO Model of Personality

Bullying has generally been studied as a homogenous phenomenon when in fact it may be heterogeneous. The goal of this study was to investigate the heterogeneity of bullying by using the HEXACO model of personality to predict physical, racial, verbal, social, and sexual bullying. A sample of 238 adolescents completed questionnaires on subtypes of bullying and the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised. As previously reported, Honesty-Humility was significantly correlated with all the subtypes of bullying, but there were variations in the correlations of the other factors. Emotionality significantly predicted racial bullying, while Conscientiousness significantly predicted physical bullying, and Honesty-Humility significantly predicted verbal, social, and sexual bullying. Age and sex also predicted some subtypes of bullying. We demonstrate that different personality factors have unique relationships with the five subtypes of bullying, underscoring bullying’s heterogeneity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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