Relationships of children involved in bully/victim problems at school *

For a child at school, perhaps the most important and salient aspects for happiness will be the quality of relationships with peers. This is not to deny the importance of early relationships with parents, generally thought to be crucial in the early years (e.g. Bowlby, 1988), and indeed to have continuing influence on the extent and quality of peer relationships. But, and especially if relationships with parents are reasonably satisfactory, by middle childhood peer relationships will occupy much of a child's time. This appears to be increasingly so through to adolescence; and the quality of friendships during these years is likely to affect later indicators of social adjustment, such as criminality, and mental health problems (Kupersmidt, Coie, & Dodge, 1990; Parker & Asher, 1987). Correlational evidence certainly supports such links, and various causal models have been proposed (Parker & Asher, 1987).