NCJ Number
194432
Journal
Journal of Emotional Abuse Volume: 2 Issue: 2/3 Dated: 2001 Pages: 63-73
Date Published
2001
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The association of adolescent bullying, early heterosexual relationships, and dominance are presented is this article.
Abstract
The author suggests that adolescent bullying is driven by a need for social dominance and is associated with heterosexual relationships and peer status. Through aggression some students' achieve a status of dominance and others a status of subordinates. Dominant individuals have greater access to resources including adolescent dating partners. Furthermore, bullying and male aggressive behavior are viewed favorably by adolescent girls which reinforces the behavior. Bully behaviors including teasing, pushing, and poking are used to initiate contact with the opposite sex without the threat of rejection during the middle school years. Although these traditional bully behaviors are used as adolescent courtship tactics they can lead to sexual harassment in later years. The author reports that students who used bullying at the start of middle school and who stated a high interest in the opposite sex were more likely to use sexual harassment near the end of middle school. This association between bullying as a courtship behavior and later sexual harassment is of great concern and the author suggests further research in this area. References