The Reasons for Retaliation: A Full Test of the Multi-Motive Model Across Types of Bullying Victimization

• In Event: Victimization over the Life Course: Longitudinal Consequences of Bullying and Adverse Experiences

Abstract

The purpose of the Reasons for Retaliation Research Project is to examine when rejection (i.e., physical, verbal, relational, or cyber bullying) triggers aggression as opposed to asocial or prosocial responding. To address our project's research question, we asked 525 students from a rural, southeastern high school about whether and how they experienced and responded to bullying victimization. We conducted multivariate analyses to test the Richman and Leary (2009) Multi-motive Model (MMM) which includes measures of affect (e.g., negative emotion), cognition (e.g., perceived social costs, perceived unfairness), and behavioral responding (e.g., antisocial, asocial, prosocial) to bullying victimization. Additionally, two key concepts from the rejection-aggression literature are integrated into the cognition component of MMM, these include: social alienation and perceived groupness. Preliminary analyses indicate that perceiving oneself as having alternative relationships or the ability to repair the relationship with the rejecter predicted prosocial responses. Rejection chronicity and lack of alternatives predicted withdrawal. Meanwhile, the perception of the rejection experience as intergroup (Gaertner et al., 2008) - not included in the MMM - and alienating were significant predictors of aggression. We will discuss these findings and the next phases of our 3-year project testing the MMM.

Authors

• Megan Suzanne Stubbs-Richardson, Mississippi State University

• David May, Mississippi State University

• H. Colleen Sinclair, Mississippi State University

• Alex Abney, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• Rebecca M. Goldberg, Mississippi State University

• Tawny McCleon, Mississippi State University