Understanding Subtypes of Bullying Victims Using Target Congruence and Lifestyle-Routine Activities Theories: A Latent Class Analysis

Prior research on bullying victimization has often explored the behavior from a binary perspective in which victims and non-victims are examined. However, there has been an increasing amount of literature taking a more nuanced approach towards different subtypes of victims in recent years. This study sought to examine heterogeneous patterns of victimization and identify correlates associated with different victim groups through an integrated framework of both lifestyle-routine activities and target congruence theories. Using a national sample of 2217 Korean adolescents, the latent class analysis uncovered three groups of victims including physical/verbal, verbal-only, and low/non-victims. The results supported the relevance of integrated target congruence and lifestyle-routine activities theories to explain subtypes of bullying-victims. Among the dimensions of target congruence, vulnerability and antagonism factors were distinctively associated with the three subgroups of victims. Bullying perpetration was relevant in distinguishing physical/verbal and verbal-only victims from non-victims even when target congruence variables were controlled for.