TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the relationship between attributional style measured in virtual reality and bullying among children at familial high risk of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder compared with controls
AU - Søndergaard, Anne
AU - Gregersen, Maja
AU - Wilms, Martin
AU - Brandt, Julie Marie
AU - Hjorthøj, Carsten
AU - Ohland, Jessica
AU - Rohd, Sinnika Birkehøj
AU - Hemager, Nicoline
AU - Andreassen, Anna Krogh
AU - Knudsen, Christina Bruun
AU - Veddum, Lotte
AU - Krantz, Mette Falkenberg
AU - Greve, Aja
AU - Bliksted, Vibeke
AU - Mors, Ole
AU - Valmaggia, Lucia
AU - Thorup, Anne E
AU - Nordentoft, Merete
N1 - Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Funding Information:
The roles of the founding sources were financial support, grants, or funding to the research project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/2
Y1 - 2024/2
N2 - BACKGROUND: Children of parents with severe mental illness report bullying more often compared with controls. We hypothesized that deviations in attributional styles may explain the increased prevalence of bullying experiences. We aimed to assess real-time responses to standardized ambiguous social situations, bullying experiences by children, their primary caregivers, and teachers, and to investigate potential associations between attributional styles and bullying.METHOD: The study included 465 children aged 11-12, born to parents with schizophrenia, N =179, bipolar disorder, N = 105, or population-based controls, N = 181. Attributional style was evaluated using virtual reality environments depicting ambiguous social everyday situations. We created a tailored assessment since no suitable assessments were found. Bullying was assessed through self-reports and reports from primary caregivers and teachers.RESULTS: We observed no group differences in the attributional style of the children. Reports from children, primary caregivers, and teachers revealed that compared with controls, children born to parents with schizophrenia were more likely to perceive bullying victimization, with high consistency among reports. No associations were found between bullying reports and attributional style.CONCLUSIONS: Children of parents with schizophrenia consistently experienced more bullying, as reported by the children themselves, primary caregivers, and teachers. No differences in attributional style were found, indicating that attributional style did not explain the increased prevalence of bullying reports. While it cannot be ruled out that our virtual environments were insufficient to trigger a sense of social exclusion, the results suggest that the observed differences in reported bullying are genuine and not a result of the child's attributional style.
AB - BACKGROUND: Children of parents with severe mental illness report bullying more often compared with controls. We hypothesized that deviations in attributional styles may explain the increased prevalence of bullying experiences. We aimed to assess real-time responses to standardized ambiguous social situations, bullying experiences by children, their primary caregivers, and teachers, and to investigate potential associations between attributional styles and bullying.METHOD: The study included 465 children aged 11-12, born to parents with schizophrenia, N =179, bipolar disorder, N = 105, or population-based controls, N = 181. Attributional style was evaluated using virtual reality environments depicting ambiguous social everyday situations. We created a tailored assessment since no suitable assessments were found. Bullying was assessed through self-reports and reports from primary caregivers and teachers.RESULTS: We observed no group differences in the attributional style of the children. Reports from children, primary caregivers, and teachers revealed that compared with controls, children born to parents with schizophrenia were more likely to perceive bullying victimization, with high consistency among reports. No associations were found between bullying reports and attributional style.CONCLUSIONS: Children of parents with schizophrenia consistently experienced more bullying, as reported by the children themselves, primary caregivers, and teachers. No differences in attributional style were found, indicating that attributional style did not explain the increased prevalence of bullying reports. While it cannot be ruled out that our virtual environments were insufficient to trigger a sense of social exclusion, the results suggest that the observed differences in reported bullying are genuine and not a result of the child's attributional style.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182912652&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.schres.2024.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.schres.2024.01.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 38219411
SN - 0920-9964
VL - 264
SP - 354
EP - 361
JO - Schizophrenia Research
JF - Schizophrenia Research
ER -
