Zur Beziehung von Bullying, psychologischen Grundbedürfnissen und bedürfnisbezogener Wettbewerbsorientierung

Students who act as perpetrators in bullying processes are pursuing certain personal goals. This can involve the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Accordingly, frustration of these needs often goes hand in hand with bullying behavior. In addition, it can be assumed that competitiveness has an impact on bullying. Accordingly, this paper hypothesizes that bullying is associated with increased need-related frustration and, in particular, with increased need-related competitiveness. To test this hypothesis, we collected data of N = 561 students who were surveyed using self-report questionnaires. Mixed hierarchical regression models were used to test the effects of need frustration and need-related competitiveness on bullying. The results highlight an association between need frustration and need-related competitiveness and indicate that need-related competitiveness contributes to the explained variance of bullying. This finding can be described with reference to all basic psychological needs.