An ethnographic study of participant roles in school bullying

Basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy as predictors of students' self-reported bystander behaviors over a school year: a growth curve analysis

Though school children tend to view peer victimization as morally wrong most do not to intervene on the victim's behalf and some instead choose to aid the victimizer. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate how students' defending and pro-aggressive bystander behaviors evolved over the course of one school year and their association to basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement, and defender self-efficacy. Three-hundred-fifty-three upper elementary school students (55% girls; 9.9-12.9 years of age) each completed self-report surveys at three points during one school year. Results from latent growth curve models showed that pro-aggressive bystander behavior remained stable over the year, whereas defending behavior decreased. Moreover, students who exhibited greater basic moral sensitivity were both less likely to be pro-aggressive and simultaneously more likely to defend. Students with defender self-efficacy were not only associated with more defending behavior at baseline but also were also less likely to decrease in defender behavior over time. Conversely, students reporting a higher degree of moral disengagement were linked to more pro-aggressive behavior, particularly when also reporting lower basic moral sensitivity. These short-term longitudinal results add important insight into the change in bystander behavior over time and how it relates to students' sense of morality. The results also highlight the practical necessity for schools to nurture students' sense of morality and prosocial behavior in their efforts to curb peer victimization.

The use of Latent Profile Analyses to examine social dominance orientation as a predictor of peer-to-peer aggression among adolescents

Peer-to-peer aggression and bullying is a social phenomenon and is related to social structures in the school. In-group membership as well as construction of the other and differentiation from other potential groups is an important predictor of one's social identity. Social Dominance Orientation is an important addition to social identity theory as it examines both issues of social dominance and social egalitarianism and is related to out-group denigration. In this study, we examined whether social dominance theory (both the dominance and egalitarian forms) will add to the prediction of physical and relational aggression among adolescents. Using a bias-corrected 3-step approach, we used Latent Profile Analyses to examine the responses of 1617 Israeli adolescents on measures of social dominance and egalitarian orientation, salience of their social groups and moral disengagement. Based on the analysis, we identified four classes of respondents, which can be broken down into two distinct categories: high social dominance and moral disengagement and high social egalitarianism. We compared male and female adolescent respondents and group salience. We then compared the four latent profiles on the two distal variables of physical and relational peer-to-peer aggression. Findings have theoretical and applied relevance to further investigating issues of group dynamics and construction of the other as potential predictive factors in understanding peer-to-peer aggression and bullying.

Surprising partners: Teachers' contribution to school bullying

Participant role theory describes the designation of social roles and the use of contextually appropriate social scripts and provides a context for the interpretation of a range of social and interpersonal issues, including bullying in the school setting. This study uses participant role theory to analyze interpersonal engagements in a 10th grade class in a high school in central Israel. Data were drawn from ethnographic observations conducted by the first author of the cohort over the course of a school year, together with in-depth semi-structured interviews with the students and teachers. The findings suggest that students apply "role switching" (the flexible presentation of multiple social roles, depending on context) to negotiate the challenge of bullying in the school setting. The study also assesses the influence of individual teachers on role switching, positing that a teacher's relationship with individual students can serve as a catalyst for role-switching in three specific circumstances: where the teacher-student relationship instigates bullying against a specific child; where the teacher is a bully; and where a supportive relationship enables positive role-switching on the part of specific classroom actors. These findings have theoretical and applied significance in both pre- and in-service training for teachers and school administrative staff.

Retrospective bullying trajectories in adults with self-reported oral language difficulties

BACKGROUND

Previous research has consistently evidenced that children with speech and language difficulties suffer more bullying victimisation during middle school years, whereas other educative stages remain less explored. Moreover, there are divergent results in previous evidence about the types of victimisation (physical, verbal, relational) youths may experience.

AIMS

To examine the retrospective developmental trajectories of bullying victimisation in adults with and without self-reported oral language difficulties across seven educational stages (preschool to university). Special attention was given to the prevalence and types of victimisation.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A total of 336 participants (ages between 18 and 65, M = 30.3) from a sample of 2259 participants that fully answered an online survey were classified as having experienced oral language difficulties (LD) not associated with a biomedical condition. A comparable control group (n = 336; ages between 18 and 72, M = 30.0) was randomly selected for statistical between-groups contrasts. Responses to the California Bullying Victimization Scale-Retrospective (CBVS-R) were analysed by generalised estimating equations (GEE) including language groups, types of bullying, and educational stages as explanatory variables. Specific language group comparisons in terms of percentages were conducted using chi-square tests.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

GEE results suggested that experiencing LD was associated with an overall increase in the likelihood of bullying victimisation, Wald's χ² (1) = 8.41, p < 0.005 for the main effect of the LD group, along almost all educational stages, Wald's χ² (6) = 3.13, p = 0.69 for the LD group × educational stage interaction. Finally, a higher proportion of participants in the LD group reported having suffered teasing behaviours at the second cycle of elementary, the first cycle of secondary, and baccalaureate. They also reported with a higher proportion being physically hurt at preschool and having received sexual comments at the second cycle of elementary, Wald's χ² (93) = 259.87, p < 0.001 for the LD group × educational stage × type of bullying interaction.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

People with oral language difficulties experience more bullying victimisation behaviours than their typically developing peers. Heightened bullying prevalence in children with language difficulties seems to emerge as early as 6-9 years old and persists along the rest of schooling. Not all victimisation forms seem to show differential increased rates in people with speech/language difficulties, evidencing important implications for bullying assessment. Results highlight the need to provide particular support to individuals with language difficulties against bullying during the entire schooling.

The Experience Sampling Method in Monitoring Social Interactions Among Children and Adolescents in School: A Systematic Literature Review

Background

The experience sampling method (ESM) is an increasingly popular data collection method to assess interpersonal dynamics in everyday life and emotions contextualized in real-world settings. As primary advantages of ESM sampling strategies include minimization of memory biases, maximization of ecological validity, and hypothesis testing at the between- and within-person levels, ESM is suggested to be appropriate for studying the daily lives of educational actors. However, ESM appears to be underutilized in education research. We, thus, aimed to systematically evaluate the methodological characteristics and quality of published ESM studies of social interactions among children and adolescents in school settings, as well as to explore how much variance in social interaction variables could be attributed to the within-person level.

Method

Using Academic Search Complete, APA PsycINFO, APA PsycArticles, ProQuest, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library, and SAGE Journals, and in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and pre-defined eligibility criteria, we conducted a systematic literature search of experience sampling studies up to November 2020. To assess methodological quality, we used a modified checklist for reporting of ESM studies.

Results

Of the originally 2 413 identified studies, a final 52 experience sampling studies were included in the present review. Findings on sample and study design characteristics generally revealed wide variability. Even if high-quality studies were associated with higher scores on the training of participants in using the ESM procedure, and use of incentives, these design strategies did not reveal a statistically significant impact on compliance. The intraclass correlation coefficient was reported in nine studies and on average 58% of the variance in social interaction variables could be attributed to within-person fluctuation between timepoints.

Conclusion

The current study is the first to systematically review ESM-based studies on social interactions among children and adolescents in the school context. These observations suggest that ESM is a potentially favorable technique for extracting complex social phenomena in real-world settings. We hope that this review will contribute to improving the quality assessment of ESM studies as well as to inform and guide future experience sampling studies, particularly regarding social phenomena with children and adolescents in educational settings.

Frenemy: A New Addition to the Bullying Circle

Greater knowledge on the social complexities of bullying is crucial to reduce actual bullying behavior. Two main approaches have been used to study bullying: the participant role approach and the bullying circle. In this study, we explored bullying through interviewing adults who had been victims of school bullying in the past, investigating how they perceived their experiences, and how they interpreted the bullying context and their surrounding peer relations. We interviewed 20 participants (more than 18 years old), all of whom had experience of being bullied for more than 1 year. The interview data were then analyzed with a thematic analysis. We found that participants had a different definition of bullying compared with the standard definition formulated by researchers. They also confirmed the fluidity of participants' roles and the changes in behavioral patterns toward victims, depending on the peer context. Most importantly, we revealed a new participant in the bullying circle: the frenemy, whose intervention style changes from pro-victim when alone with the victim to neutral or pro-aggressor when surrounded by members of the bullying circle. This new addition adds to our understanding of the bullying process and the relationships within the bullying circle, which may help with more effective prevention.

Peer Victimisation in Early Childhood; Observations of Participant Roles and Sex Differences

During middle childhood and adolescence, victimisation appears to be a group process involving different participant roles. However, peer reports with younger children (four to six years old) have failed to identify the participant roles of assistant (to the bully) reinforcers or defenders with much reliability. This may be because peer victimisation is a more dyadic process among younger children (behavioural reality), or because of limitations in young children’s cognitive capacity to identify these behaviours (cognitive limitations). The findings of an observational study which examined the group nature of peer victimisation among young children are presented. Observations were made of 56 children aged four and five years using time sampling during free play at school (totalling 43.5 h of observation). Records were made of their behaviour when an onlooker witnessed aggression by others, and also of others’ behaviour when they were being aggressive or being victimised. Although children other than the aggressor and target were present in nearly two thirds of the episodes of peer victimisation observed, few exhibited behavioural responses in line with the assistant, reinforcer or defender roles. This supports the behavioural reality rather than the cognitive limitations explanation. Sex differences were observed in types of aggression displayed by children, with boys more likely than girls to be physically aggressive. Children were less likely to be aggressive to other-sex peers and were most likely to be victimised by children of the same sex as them. There were also sex differences in children’s onlooker behaviour. The implications for our understanding of the development of peer victimisation and bullying in children are discussed.