Personality and bullying: Pathways to adolescent social dominance

The current study examined whether personality traits were related to social dominance, directly, and indirectly through bullying, in samples of Western (Canadian) and Eastern (Chinese) adolescents. Self-report measures of personality, bullying, and social dominance were completed by 442 Chinese adolescents (293 boys), ages 14 to 19 ( M = 14.63, SD = 1.53), and 389 Canadian adolescents (161 boys), ages 12 to 18 ( M = 14.64, SD = 1.53). It was predicted that personality traits involving arrogance and exploitativeness (i.e., low Honesty-Humility) and impulsivity (i.e., low Conscientiousness) would be indirectly associated with social dominance, through bullying, in both samples. Consistent with evolutionary psychological perspectives, Honesty-Humility was directly and indirectly related to social dominance in both samples, whereas Conscientiousness was indirectly associated through bullying in Canadian and Chinese participants. Some relations differed across cultural contexts, in line with evolutionary and ecological perspectives suggesting that the expression of predispositions toward bullying and dominance depends on the costs and benefits afforded by the environmental (cultural) context. Specifically, eXtraversion was indirectly related to social dominance through bullying only in the Chinese sample, whereas Agreeableness was directly related to social dominance only for Canadian participants. We discuss the implications of these results for future research and intervention efforts along with the need to further verify the cross-cultural validity of adolescent behavior measures.