The role of empathy and social anxiety in Latinx adolescents' indirect peer aggression during the transition to high school

Facing ambiguity: Social threat sensitivity mediates the association between peer victimization and adolescent anxiety

Peer victimization is a developmentally salient stressor that elevates adolescents' risk for anxiety disorders. However, modifiable mechanisms that explain this link and can be targeted via therapeutic interventions remain poorly understood. Drawing from psychobiological models implicating aberrant threat sensitivity in the development and maintenance of psychopathology, the current study investigated sensitivity to peer-related social threats as a mechanism underlying the association between peer victimization and anxiety. A sample of 197 dyads of early adolescents (M age = 12.02; 46% female) and parents/guardians (M age = 41.46; 90% female) completed online surveys assessing peer victimization, sensitivity to potential (i.e., ambiguous) social threats, and anxiety. Controlling for potentially confounding demographic and psychosocial factors, both self- and parent-reported peer victimization were positively associated with adolescent anxiety symptoms. Additionally, there were significant indirect effects from self- and parent-reported peer victimization to anxiety via social threat sensitivity. Supplemental analyses indicated unique effects of covert, but not overt, peer victimization on social threat sensitivity and anxiety. The findings provide initial evidence that peer victimization experiences lower adolescents' threshold for interpreting threats in ambiguous social situations, which contributes to heightened anxiety. These results implicate social threat sensitivity as a potential therapeutic target for interrupting links from peer victimization to psychological distress.

Indirect aggression, anxiety, and empathy: Disaggregating between and within person longitudinal associations during childhood and adolescence

Although indirectly aggressive behavior and anxiety symptoms can co-occur, it is unclear whether anxiety is an antecedent or outcome of indirect aggression at the individual level and whether other personality traits can contribute to these longitudinal associations. Therefore, the between- and within-person associations among indirect aggression, anxiety symptoms, and empathic concern were examined across adolescence from ages 11 to 16 in a cohort of individuals followed annually (N = 700; 52.9% girls; 76.0% White) controlling for direct aggression and demographic variables. Results of autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals supported an acting out model at the within-person level. Specifically, anxiety symptoms positively predicted indirect aggression and indirect aggression negatively predicted empathic concern at each adjacent time point. These findings suggest that methods of reducing worries about the self and increasing healthy self-confidence could prevent indirect aggression and help build concern and compassion toward others.

Emotional Strengths and Difficulties in Italian Adolescents: Analysis of Adaptation through the SDQ

An adolescent’s knowledge of him/herself (positive aspects and weaknesses) is shaped by interactions with external and internal factors, including the family context and the educational environment. The assessment of this knowledge serves to construct the concept of self-esteem. The main objective of the present study was to examine the prevalence of self-reported emotional and behavioral symptoms in a representative sample of Italian adolescents and their relationship with gender and age, using Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). A total of 440 adolescents (49.8% female) aged 15–18 years from the southern Italy region participated. The results show the prevalence of emotional and behavioral symptoms in the analyzed sample. Gender differences were also found in the variables under study. In conclusion, the SDQ test is offered as an agile, simplified, and effective tool, to be proposed to all formative agents who are concerned with the interest and care not only of young people, but also of the future of socio-political realities.

Peer victimization, schooling format, and adolescent internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: Between- and within-person associations across ninth grade

The current longitudinal study examined how between-person (BP) differences and within-person (WP) fluctuations in adolescents' peer victimization and schooling format across ninth grade related to changes in their internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 388 adolescents (61% female; Mage = 14.02) who completed three online surveys, administered 3 months apart, from November 2020 to May 2021. Multilevel modeling revealed BP (time-invariant) and WP (time-varying) effects of peer victimization and school instructional format (i.e., in-person; hybrid; online) on internalizing symptoms while accounting for potentially confounding demographic (e.g., gender) and contextual (e.g., COVID-19 positivity rates) factors. Results indicated that adolescents who experienced higher overall levels of peer victimization across the school year, compared to those who experienced lower victimization, reported more severe internalizing symptoms. Whereas relative WP increases in peer victimization predicted corresponding increases in adolescents' depressive and somatic symptoms regardless of schooling format, WP increases in peer victimization only predicted elevated anxiety during months when students attended fully in-person, but not online, school. Adolescents who spent a greater proportion of their school year attending online school also reported less peer victimization across the year. Findings highlight WP fluctuations in the effects of peer victimization on internalizing and contextual variations depending on schooling format.

The associations between reading mind in the eyes abilities, alexithymia, empathy, and bullying behavior in Turkish adolescents

PROBLEM

The development of any program to reduce bullying is possible with a better understanding of the associated underlying factors with its emergence. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate three different social cognitive abilities: abilities to read minds in the eyes, alexithymic personality traits, and empathy, in association with bullying behaviors in adolescents. Although these factors have been studied separately, our data highlighted their effect, relationship, and interconnectivity.

METHODS

The participants consisted of 351 adolescents (57.8% girls) aged 13-16 years (mean: 14.32 ± 0.73 for girls, 14.38 ± 0.86 for boys). The data used in this cross-sectional study were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Pearson's moment product correlation analysis and hierarchical linear regression analysis were performed to evaluate the associations between variables.

FINDINGS

Bullying behavior levels were higher in male adolescents compared with females. The results indicated that bullying behavior was associated with low levels of reading minds in the eyes abilities, alexithymic personality traits, and low affective empathy levels.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the critical impact of the poor comprehension of mental states and emotional statuses of other people and low emphatic thinking capacity in the emergence of bullying behaviors among adolescents. Therapeutic interventions focusing on improving these factors may therefore be useful in prevention and management programs for bullying behavior.