Comparison of Implicit and explicit associations of aggression and anxiety in adolescent boys with and without bullying behavior

The aim of this study was to compare the implicit and explicit associations of aggression and anxiety in boy adolescents with and without bullying behavior. The research method was descriptive correlational and its statistical population included 12 to 19 year old male students in Tehran in the first and second secondary school that 113 students were selected by cluster sampling method in the academic year of 2019-2020 In order to identify students with and without bullying, the Peer Bullying Nomination Form (Pekarik et al. 1976) was used. To collect research data, the Illinois Bullying Questionnaire (Espelage, Holt.2001), the Sc-l90 Clinical Symptoms checklist (Derogatis & lipman, Covi.1973), and Implicit Association Test (IAT) (Greenwald et al. 1998) were used. Data were analyzed by using average comparison test and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the difference in implicit association scores of aggression and anxiety in two groups with and without bullying was significant; But only the explicit association scores of aggression were significant in two groups and the explicit association of anxiety was not different in two groups. Results also showed that explicit and implicit associations of aggression, and implicit association of anxiety can predict bullying behavior with confidence (p≥ 0.0001). These results confirm the role of implicit and explicit associations in the clinical field; and helps to better understand bullying behavior, to be considered in the development of educational programs and psychological interventions.