Bullying involvement and psychopathic personality: disentangling the links among college students

Abstract

There is a good deal of research about the predictors of aggressive and antisocial behaviour in children, adolescents, and adults. Additionally, previous work has established a link between psychopathic personality and disruptive behaviours among youth, with clear links to bullying. However, little is known about the role of psychopathic personality traits in the manifestation of bullying in young adults. In order to shed additional understanding on the nature of the relationship between bullying and psychopathy, the current investigation proposes to compare psychopathic personality traits in relation to participants’ roles in bullying and to examine the relationships between bullying and psychopathy. The sample comprised here involves 273 college students (Mage=25.5; SD=6.1), who responded to measures of psychopathy and bullying behaviours. With the exception of Carefree Non-Planfulness, Fearlessness, Stress Immunity and Social Influence, all other psychopathic domains measured by the PPI-R-40 were positively correlated with victimisation (rrange=.07-.35). Higher self-reporting of bullying others was linked with higher levels of Blame Externalisation, Machiavellianism, Rebellion Nonconformity, Self-Centred Impulsivity factor, Social Influence, and total psychopathy (rrange=.08-.38). Significant differences between participants’ involvement with bullying for Blame Externalisation, Machiavellian Egocentricity, Rebellion Nonconformity, Social Influence, Total Psychopathy and Self-Centred Impulsivity factor. Implications of the study, along with limitations and directions for future research are discussed.