Biased self-perceptions of social competence and engagement in physical and relational aggression: the moderating role of peer status and sex

Peer likeability and victimization in young adolescents: Moderating effects of descriptive and status group norms for aggression and prosocial behaviour and network density

INTRODUCTION

Previous research has shown that peer victimization can be highly responsive to variables at the classroom level. Aggressive and prosocial norms may promote or reduce its status in classrooms. However, yet there is an apparent lack of success to explain which types of norms are more influential. This study examined the role of aggressive and prosocial descriptive and status norms in the peer victimization-status link. It also explores how the network density increases adherence to the prevailing norm in the classroom and its effect on the status of the victims.

METHOD

Data on peer acceptance and rejection, victimization, prosocial behaviour, and aggression were collected with sociometric methods in a sample of 6,600 students (M = 13.1 years, SD = 0.6; 49.2% girls), from 269 classrooms in 81 secondary schools in Spain. Group norms for aggression and for prosocial behaviour were assessed in three ways, the behaviour of all peers (class-norm), the behaviour of most-liked peers (likeability-norm), and the behaviour of most salient peers (visibility-norm).

RESULTS

Multilevel regression analyses revealed that the negative impact of victimization on peer likeability was moderated by the classroom's norm for prosocial behaviour, by the status norm of most visible peers' norm for prosocial behaviour and for aggression, and by the group's network density. The behavioural status norms of most likeable peers had no significant effect.

CONCLUSION

These results underscore the overall importance of group context as a moderating factor of the relation between victimization and peer status in adolescents, and add to the growing body of knowledge driven by the socio-ecological approach to the study of peer relations in developmental psychology. As implications for education, these results affect the importance of considering socio-emotional variables in the formation of class groups in order to reduce victimization.

Relationship between Socio-Emotional Competencies and the Overlap of Bullying and Cyberbullying Behaviors in Primary School Students

Digital life forms part of daily reality for young people. For this reason, traditional bullying in school has been reproduced in the online environment, resulting in an overlap of off- and online bullying. Research on socio-emotional competencies and bullying is revealing interesting results among students in secondary schools. However, studies involving primary school students are much scarcer. In addition, the majority of studies have been carried out based on an understanding of socio-emotional competencies as a unidimensional construct. In the present study, we examined the overlap between off- and online bullying victimization and the influence of the factors comprising socio-emotional competencies on this overlap. Participants comprised 1130 students (49.7% were boys and 50.3% were girls) from the fifth and sixth grades at 15 schools in the autonomous communities of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). The results indicate a high rate of overlap between off- and online bullying victimization, without significant gender differences. Poor relationship skills in boys and low self-management in girls were associated with being a victim of both traditional bullying and cyberbullying. The conclusions point to an interesting line of intervention and prevention, establishing a framework of confluence for social and emotional variables within the primary education context.

Involvement in Bullying During High School: A Survival Analysis Approach

Knowledge about the risks of bullying involvement during any year of high school is an important element of interventions for changing the likelihood of being bullied. Three cohorts of Australian students (n = 1,382) were tracked from 7th grade to 11th grade. The study showed that some students continue their involvement in bullying, while in addition, new bullies and new victims emerge during each high school year. The findings indicated that the risk of bullying involvement ranged from 16% (as a bully) to 36% (as a victim), increasing to 54.5% and 56.3%, respectively, if a student was a bully or a victim in 7th grade. The risk to students of becoming victims, bullies, or bully-victims in each year of high school suggests that bullying prevention initiatives should be designed to suit students at different stages of adolescent development.

Social Costs for Wannabes: Moderating Effects of Popularity and Gender on the Links between Popularity Goals and Negative Peer Experiences

Youth in early adolescence are highly concerned with being popular in the peer group, but the desire to be popular can have maladaptive consequences for individuals. In fact, qualitative work suggests that youth with high popularity goals who are nonetheless unpopular have negative experiences with their peers. However, little quantitative work has examined this possibility. The purpose of the current study was to examine if popularity goals were linked with physical (e.g., being hit) and relational (e.g., being excluded) victimization and peer rejection, particularly for individuals who strived for popularity but were viewed by their peers as unpopular. Late elementary and early middle school participants (N = 205; 54% female) completed self-reports of popularity goals and peer nominations of popularity and peer rejection. Teachers reported on students' experiences of relational and physical victimization. Peer nominated popularity and gender were moderators of the association between popularity goals and negative peer experiences. Consistent with hypotheses, girls who were unpopular but wanted to be popular were more likely to experience peer rejection and relational victimization. Unexpectedly, boys who were unpopular but did not desire to be popular were more likely to be rejected and relationally victimized. The findings suggest that intervention and prevention programs may benefit from addressing the social status goals of low status youth in a gender-specific manner.

Biased self-perceived social competence and engagement in subtypes of aggression: Examination of peer rejection, social dominance goals, and sex of the child as moderators

This study expands on prior research suggesting that children who either over- or under-estimate their social competence relative to others' reports are more likely to be aggressive. Linear and curvilinear associations between biased social self-perceptions and forms (physical vs. relational) and functions (proactive vs. reactive) of aggression were tested along with three moderators (peer rejection, social dominance goals, and child sex). Children in the fifth through eight grade (N = 167) completed self-reports of perceived social competence and social dominance goals. Teachers completed ratings of children's social competence, peer rejection, and reactive and proactive physical and relational aggression. Bias in self-perceived social competence was quantified as the residual difference between child and teacher ratings of the child's social competence. There was a significant interaction between quadratic bias and peer rejection predicting reactive physical aggression; rejected children with a positive bias or a negative bias were highest in reactive physical aggression. The interaction between linear bias, social dominance goals, and the sex of the child was also significant when predicting proactive physical aggression. Among girls who highly valued social dominance, a positive bias predicted greater proactive physical aggression. Results are discussed in terms of implications for aggression theory and intervention. Aggr. Behav. 42:498-509, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Positively biased self-perceptions of peer acceptance and subtypes of aggression in children

There is a growing body of research linking children's positively biased self-perceptions with higher levels of aggression. This study extended this area of research by examining prospective associations of positively biased self-perceptions of peer acceptance with overt and relational aggression. In addition, moderating effects of peer rejection were examined to test the "disputed overestimation hypothesis," which posits that the link between bias and aggression is limited to children who are rejected by their peers. Using a two-wave longitudinal design, measures of peer-rated and self-perceived peer acceptance and peer-rated overt and relational aggression were obtained for 712 children in 3rd through 5th grades (386 girls and 326 boys). Positively biased perceptions led to increases in relational, but not overt, aggression. This pattern was observed even when the effects of gender, race, peer rejection, and overt aggression on relational aggression were controlled. Contrary to the disputed overestimation hypothesis, the prospective associations between bias and aggression did not vary as a function of children's peer rejection status, thus supporting the view that positive bias predicts future aggressive behavior, regardless of social status. The results are discussed in terms of the comparability with previous findings and practical implications.