by Julia El Kallassi, Raymond Bou Nader, Martine Bouvard

Objective: Bullying is a serious problem among school-age children, contributing to both internalizing and externalizing difficulties. The existing literature does not place much emphasis on the factors explaining the link between victimization and psychological difficulties. This study looked into the roles of rumination and self-efficacy in this relationship.
Method: Data was collected from 362 children (202 girls; Mage = 13.1, SD = 1.16) over two points in time, separated by 6 months.
Results: Findings revealed a main effect of bullying status (being a victim of bullying vs. being non-involved) on rumination, self-efficacy, and internalizing/externalizing symptoms. Additional analyses explored different existing profiles (non-involved who stayed non-involved, new victims, escaped victims, and continuous victims) in terms of their psychological difficulties, ruminative responses, and self-efficacy. Mediation analyses show that victimization at Time 1 predicts internalizing difficulties at Time 2, but this effect is not mediated by rumination or self-efficacy. Conversely, victimization indirectly predicts externalizing symptoms at Time 2 via rumination. Moreover, internalizing symptoms at Time 1 predict victimization at Time 2 through both rumination and self-efficacy, while externalizing symptoms at Time 1 predict victimization at Time 2 via self-efficacy.
Conclusions: The findings provide practical insights for those working with victims of bullying and also lay the foundation for future research.

Key words: school bullying, rumination, self-efficacy, internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms