Childhood bullying involvement and exposure to intimate partner violence.

Childhood bullying and victimization are serious problems that can threaten a child’s socioemotional development. Bullying is defined as conscious, repeated acts of physical, verbal (eg, name-calling), or relational (eg, social exclusion, spreading rumors) aggression that causes injury or discomfort to the target1 between children of differing physical size and strength.2 Bullies, victims, and bully-victims are at risk for a variety of psychological, peer, and school problems.1,3,4 Victims also are at increased risk for suicide5 and school violence.6 Bullying behaviors can emerge as early as elementary school age and usually peak during middle school. A large US study found that 11% of children in grades 6 to 10 bullied others “sometimes,” with an additional 9% bullying more frequently.3 Former victims were more likely to have poorer self-esteem and experience depression at age 23; likewise, 70% of bullies who were identified in seventh and ninth grades were involved in criminal activity by age 24,7 yet little is known about risk factors that may predispose a child toward frequent bullying or victimization. Bullies tend to experience inconsistent authoritarian parenting styles and exhibit impulsive tendencies.8 Identification of predisposing factors in the home and environment (eg, school climate) can lead to timely identification of at-risk children and provide the basis for targeted interventions. One possible risk factor for bullying is exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). It is estimated that between 3.3 and 10 million children in the United States witness IPV in their homes annually.9 On the basis of theories of social learning10 and emotional dysregulation,11 children who are exposed to IPV in their homes can be at particular risk for learning negative relationship patterns. Through their early experiences with primary caregivers and siblings, children learn rules of relationships and begin to construct their views of the world. IPV is defined as physical, emotional, or sexual acts of aggression (actual or perceived) between 2 partners (eg, marital or nonmarital, current or past) that occur repetitively with the intent to harm.12 Exposure to IPV can influence a child’s perception of violence as an acceptable method of resolving conflict. Children who are exposed to IPV exhibit both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in the borderline to clinical range,13–15 yet little is known about the influence that witnessing IPV, either directly or indirectly, has on children’s peer relationships. Specifically, little is known about the impact of IPV on a child’s likelihood of becoming a bully or bully-victim. Given the paucity of research in this area, we examined the prevalence of bullying and victimization among children who were drawn from a longitudinal, multi-generational, community-based sample. In addition, we examined the relationship between exposure to IPV and subsequent bullying and victimization. Here, we differentiated between physical forms of bullying (eg, externalizing behavior/physical aggression) and those that are more relational in nature. We also examined the association between IPV and internalizing behaviors in children. Our study was organized in 2 parts. First, we examined the relationship of IPV and externalizing and internalizing behaviors in children. We hypothesized that children who were exposed to IPV would exhibit problematic behaviors at the upper quartile. We then examined whether IPV exposure increases the risk for relational bullying as a stand-alone outcome.