Peer Aggression and Well-being Study Method and Participants

The Peer Aggression and Well-being study used a mixed method research design. The Student Aggression and Victimisation Questionnaire include items that enable an assessment of both victimisation and perpetration of peer aggression and bullying. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to examine the peer aggression data. Respondents were considered to have experienced repetition of peer aggression if they reported an act against them that was repeated or if they experienced more than one type of peer aggression event at least once or twice. Power imbalance was determined according to the self-reported power imbalance for each peer aggression type experienced. A classification into a category that involved all criteria, such as intentional harm, power imbalance and repetition, over-rode any other classification. Student self-reports of their involvement in peer aggression were examined and students who had perpetrated aggressive acts were categorised according to their intent and perception of harm, power imbalance and repetition, into “perpetrator of aggression” groups.