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Vol.8, No.1, 2021 1072 

 

 

 

 

Healthy Context Paradox of Being Bullied and Exter-

nalizing Problems among Adolescents 

By Liu, X., Pan, B., Chen, L., Li, T., Ji, L., & Zhang, W. 
Correspondence to: Liu, X., Shandong Normal University, China. Email: 

liuxiaowei123000@163.com 

EALTHY Context Paradox mainly refers to the situation where the bul-

lied adolescents tend to show more psychological problems, such as 

depression and anxiety, while the surroundings are relatively low in bullying 

level. A study published in Acta Psychologica Sinica further conducted in-

depth research exploring this counterintuitive psychological phenomenon, 

analyzing the relationship between being bullied and externalizing problems. 

Specifically, students’ externalizing problems represent explicit misbehav-

iors. 

In terms of model construction, researchers set the average level of 

being bullied within a class as moderating variables and taking hostile attrib-

ution bias as mediating variables. The results are as follows: 

 Between the level of individual being bullied and externalizing 

problems, the former can significantly positively predict exter-

nalizing problems, while the level in the class did not predict ex-

ternalizing problems directly, which adjusted the correlations, the 

lower the level, the higher the frequency of individual externaliz-

ing problems, as a result, presenting the “Healthy Context Para-

dox” phenomenon. 

 After the inclusion of mediating variables, the average level of 

bullying in the class significantly negatively predicted the rela-

tionship between the experience of being bullied and the hostile 

attribution bias. As for the class with a higher average level of 

bullying, the relationship between the experience of being bullied 

and the hostile attribution bias was relatively weak. 

These results suggest that hostile attribution bias plays a mediating 

role in the Healthy Context Paradox. Although the classroom environment is 

relatively positive, the students tend to become more “incompatible” as long 

as they are bullied, and then their hostile attribution bias will increase, and 

more externalization problems will occur. 

The researchers suggest that after a bullying incident, teachers should 

help the victim by forming the proper attributional pattern. In addition, in the 

H 



 

Vol.8, No.1, 2021 1073 

daily teaching work, teachers can design games and activities aimed at pro-

moting positive interaction between classmates to help students build good 

peer beliefs and reduce the hostile attribution bias of bullied individuals. 

 

Source: Acta Psychologica Sinica, 2021; 53(2):170-181. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 


