Latent groups and latent traits of participation in bullying via factor mixture analysis: An exploratory study

In this study, we drew on a person-centred approach to explore forms of involvement and roles in bullying. More specifically, we applied Factor Mixture Analysis (FMA) to an in-depth measure of bullying roles, with a view to identifying latent dimensions of participation in bullying and latent groups characterised by differential behavioural patterns. Participants were 899 high school students (51% females) attending the 9th (49%) and 11th grades (51%). The data analysis revealed six latent behavioural dispositions. Four of these overlapped with behavioural patterns typical of previously identified forms of participation in bullying, while two factors shed new light on bullying behaviours. We also identified four latent groups, whose profiles were only partially aligned with the roles previously theorised in the literature.