Gender as moderator in the relationship between identity formation and bully behaviour among adolescents

During adolescence, individuals face several social challenges while forming their identities. These social pressures may contribute to increases in risky behaviour such as bully perpetration and bully victimisation. Bully behaviour occurs on all social levels in South Africa and therefore adolescents are confronted with this behaviour from a young age. Males and females form identities in different ways and are confronted with bully behaviour differently. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate whether a significant amount of the variance in bully behaviour can be explained by identity formation. The present research study was conducted using a quantitative, non-experimental approach, with a correlational research design. A sample of 168 participants was selected from a high school in the Mangaung area, Bloemfontein, by means of non-probability, convenience sampling. Self-report questionnaires, including a biographic questionnaire, the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ) and the Forms of Bullying Scale (FBS) with versions to measure bully victimisation (FBS-V) and perpetration (FBS-P), were used to collect data for the research. Physical bullying and psychological bullying were measured and data were analysed by means of regression analyses. In this study, it was found that 2.56% of variance in bully victimisation can be explained by identity formation and 2.62% of variance in psychological bully victimisation can be explained by identity formation. Various significant intercorrelations between the different forms of bully behaviour were observed. It was also concluded that, in the present study, gender did not play a significant moderating role in the relationship between bully behaviour and identity formation. This study contributed to the literature in terms of adolescence, identity formation, bully behaviour and gender. In practical settings, the study contributed to the field of psychology, especially in the contexts of secondary schools where workshops regarding identity formation and bully behaviour can be presented.