Date
11-13-2025
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Bethany Mims
Keywords
bullying, bully role, bully victim, bystander role, bullying trends, negative social attitude, Bullying Exclusions and Experiences Scale, prejudice, stigmas, social attitudes, in-group, out-group, implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes, intergroup bias, school bullying, stereotypes, neurodivergent, race, racist, generational
Disciplines
Psychology | Sociology
Recommended Citation
Ensminger, Shilowe A., "Retrospective Adult Bullying Role Trend Analysis with Correlational Investigation Between the Victim Role and Stigma-based Demographic Information" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7647.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7647
Abstract
A longstanding social construct that has negatively impacted large numbers of individuals throughout generations is bullying. Despite anti-bullying programs and policies, current literature indicates that bullying is an ongoing concern throughout schools and in the workplace. The consequences of bullying have been shown to impact the mental and physical health of those involved with potentially severe outcomes. Current literature focuses on analysis of childhood bullying experiences, leaving a gap in the research investigating adult reflective bullying trends. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental survey, and causal-comparative study was to address this gap by recruiting adult participants for a reflective analysis of bullying role experiences using the Bullying Exclusions and Experiences Scale (BEES) and investigating for correlations between stigma-based demographic information and the BEES victim role scores across four generations. A Kruskal-Wallis analysis and Mann-Whitney U analysis found significant differences for all three BEES roles across the generations and between some of the generations. A Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient found significant correlations between some of the stigma-based demographic information and the victim role scores within some of the generations. The results of this study contribute to the literature by demonstrating bullying trends that indicate ongoing bullying role experiences with younger generations reporting higher incidences of bully role experience compared to older generations.
