Gender and Bullying: Application of a Three-Factor Model of Gender Stereotyping

Troubling Secondary Victimization of Bullying Victims: The Role of Gender and Ethnicity

Bullying is a severe public health problem, and bystanders' reactions are a key variable in its perpetration and maintenance. This study aimed to assess the level of secondary victimization of bullying victims as a function of the student's sex and the victim's category (nonnormative vs. normative) in three experimental conditions (feminine, masculine, and ethnicity) from a socioecological perspective. Specifically, two dimensions of secondary victimization were evaluated: avoidance and devaluation/blaming of the victim. A sequence of mixed-design ANOVAs was performed with a sample of 553 Spanish (53.3%) and Portuguese (46.7%) students, aged between 14 and 19 years. Results show that nonnormative victims, those who transgress feminine and masculine gender stereotypes, and those who belong to a minority ethnic group (gypsies) are avoided more than normative victims; and that boys perpetrate more secondary victimization than girls. These results reveal the situation of vulnerability suffered by adolescents who transgress the gender norm as well as those who belong to minority ethnic groups, and highlight that the motivations concealed by the secondary victimization of bullying victims originate in the group processes of identity construction and categorization that configure the boundaries of "legitimacy" and are strongly influenced by social beliefs about normative and nonnormative identities. This socioecological approach could guide prevention strategies, so generic antibullying policies that do not explicitly address biases about gender, sexual, and cultural identity can be overcome to reduce the high levels of stigma occurring in the schools through critical and culturally responsive pedagogy.

The Relationship between Personal Variables and Perceived Appropriateness of Coping Strategies against Cybervictimisation among Pre-Service Teachers

Cyberbullying behaviours begin at primary school, so the actions taken by pre-teachers will play a key role in achieving the goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. More specifically, active coping strategies are essential in reducing victimisation. The aim of this study was to identify the coping strategies considered effective by pre-service teachers and to analyse the perceived appropriateness of active and passive strategies in relation to personal variables. The participants were 1122 students on the Bachelor’s Degree in Education at the University of Castile-La Mancha in Spain. The study measured the perceived appropriateness of five active coping strategies and four passive coping strategies, moral disengagement, experiences of bullying and cyberbullying, emotions in response to bullying and gender stereotypes. The results show that more than 25% of pre-service teachers are not prepared to manage cyberbullying effectively. Prior experiences of victimisation, personal masculinity in men and moral emotions in women are related to active strategies, while moral disengagement, and pleasant emotions in women, are related to passive strategies. Universities must implement initiatives to ensure that pre-service teachers receive training on effective coping strategies and reflect on the personal factors influencing their decisions.

Bullying Victimization Profiles of School-Aged Adolescents and Associations With Weight Statuses: A Latent Class Analysis

Bullying and childhood obesity are public health concerns in the United States. While obesity has been found to be associated with bullying victimization, it is less clear how it is differentially associated with biological sex and grade level across varying patterns of bullying victimization. Based on the subset of U.S. students in the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study, patterns of co-occurring bullying victimization and sex and grade level differences in the association between the patterns of bullying victimization and weight status were examined among 9,124 students in Grades 5 to 10. The latent class analysis revealed three patterns of bullying victimization: verbal-relational victimization (Class 1), all-type victimization (Class 2), and noninvolved pattern (Class 3). The results found that females had a higher likelihood of being in Class 1 than males. Moreover, fifth to sixth and seventh to eighth-graders were more likely than ninth to tenth graders to be in both Class 1 and Class 2. Obese males and overweight females were more likely to be in Class 1 and Class 2 than in Class 3. In addition, obesity and overweight status were positively associated with bullying victimization among fifth to sixth and seven to eighth-graders. However, no significant association was found between obesity and overweight status and bullying victimization among ninth to tenth graders. Findings from the study suggest that school-based strategies, especially sex- and age-specific programs, need to take into consideration the bullying involvement of students who are overweight or obese.

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.

Correlates of bullying perpetration among Lebanese adolescents: a national study

Background

Presently, 1 in 4 Lebanese adolescents is involved in bullying, with 12% being perpetrators. In Lebanon, around 90% of bullying incidents occur in schools. Given the lack of studies tackling bullying perpetration in Lebanon, this study aims to identify and target risk factors of bullying perpetration among Lebanese adolescents, which would serve future prevention and intervention programs.

Methods

This cross-sectional study took place between January and May 2019 in a proportionate random sample of schools from all Lebanese districts. A total of 1810 (90.5%) out of 2000 students accepted to participate.

Results

Results showed that 831 (49.1%, CI: 0.46–0.51) participants had bullied other people. A stepwise linear regression, using as the dependent variable the bullying perpetration score, showed that higher psychological (β = 0.12; 95% CI 0.083–0.176), sexual (β = 0.26; 95% CI 0.128–0.411), neglect (β = 0.08; 95% CI 0.051–0.120), physical abuse (β = 0.13; 95% CI 0.036–0.235), higher internet addiction (β = 0.07; 95% CI 0.057–0.097), higher social fear (β = 0.10; 95% CI 0.075–0.140), and having separated parents (β = 1.60; 95% CI 0.561–2.650) were significantly associated with more bullying perpetration. Higher social avoidance (β = − 0.03; 95% CI -0.062- -0.003) was significantly associated with less bullying perpetration.

Conclusion

The results revealed that bullying perpetration is significantly associated with parental status, child abuse, internet addiction, and social fear. Educational and relevant governmental institutions could use our findings to develop and implement efficient bullying prevention and intervention programs for all involved parties.

Methodological Analysis of the Effect of an Anti-Bullying Programme in Secondary Education through Communicative Competence: A Pre-Test-Post-Test Study with a Control-Experimental Group

The promotion of communicative competence in students play a key role in schools for the purpose of improving social, emotional and coexistence relationships in Secondary Education students. The development of said competence can represent a great strategy to improve conflicts in the classroom, notably bullying. We used a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test control group design with a sample of 55 students from the city of Salamanca (Spain) to analyse the level of conflict and their perceptions about bullying during the 2017–2018 academic year. The anti-bullying programme called the Improvement of Coexistence and Communicative Competence (ICCC) programme used is. The behaviour of students based on their level of coexistence with the group of classmates was measured by the INSEBULL instrument (Bullying Assessment Instrument), which added one more dimension of own elaboration. The results showed that, even though the significant levels of conflict, they decreased substantially once the ICCC programme was applied. Furthermore, we found differences between the control and experimental groups which underlined the effectiveness of the program. Regarding gender, no differences were found in the experimental group. This study shows that the development of communicative competence in students has a significant impact on their level of coexistence with other classmates, although the results suggested the need for longitudinal implementation of the programme in order to improve school coexistence and social skills of students from the early stages of education.

Psychometric properties of an abbreviated Childhood Family Mealtime Questionnaire among overweight and obese Hispanic adolescents

The current family mealtime literature shows that assessments of the mealtime environment are typically self-report, yet few studies discuss validation techniques or report using validated scales. As such, the current analysis was conducted to validate one of the only published measures to assess the mealtime environment from the adolescent perspective. Specifically, the Childhood Family Mealtime Questionnaire (CFMQ) was evaluated in a sample of 280 overweight and obese Hispanic adolescents to address the need for a validated measure of the family mealtime environment in a demographic that is disproportionately affected by the current obesity epidemic. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the optimal factor structure, reliability, and validity for a revised, abbreviated CFMQ are presented here. The concurrent validity of the CFMQ was evaluated using correlations between the factor structures and the previously used, culturally appropriate comparable measure of family functioning. Correlations were also computed between factor scores and obesogenic outcomes (fruit and vegetable intake, added sugar intake, and physical activity). Analyses produced a revised, abbreviated version that includes 22 items (reduced from a total of 69 items) and consists of the following 4 factors: family mealtime communication (5 items), family mealtime stress (7 items), appearance weight control (5 items), and mealtime structure (6 items). Cronbach's alphas are reported for reliability. When examining CFMQ concurrent validity with the family functioning latent variable, results showed the family mealtime communication subscale ranked highest. Additionally, the family mealtime communication subscale was associated with all three obesogenic outcomes. This abbreviated CFMQ may be a useful tool for those studying family mealtime environments and their influence on obesity and its associated lifestyle behaviors.

Gender-Bashing in Adolescents: Structural Relations with Heterosexual Matrix, Racism/Xenophobia and Attitudes Toward Bullying

BACKGROUND

This study examined the combined influence of gender variables (specifically gender stereotypes, sexism, and genderism/transphobia) as well as racism/xenophobia and attitudes toward bullying roles on gender-bashing.

METHODS

A trans-cultural sample of 2410 Spanish and Portuguese students participated in the study (mean age = 15.13). Structural equation modeling and multiple group analyses were used to examine the relationships among variables.

RESULTS

The model revealed a good fit with the data for the whole sample. Results showed that instrumentality, hostile sexism, genderism/transphobia, racism/xenophobia, and positive attitudes toward the bully were positively correlated with gender-bashing. An inverse pattern was also observed: expressiveness, benevolent sexism, and positive attitudes toward the defender were negatively correlated with gender-bashing. Overall, the eight variables explained 48% of the variance of gender-bashing. Structural relationships among the assessed constructs were equivalent for girls and boys, and for Spain and Portugal.

CONCLUSIONS

These results reveal the need to implement inclusive educational policies to improve school health, which promote expressiveness, egalitarian attitudes, and sexual and cultural diversity.

Parents’ Responses to Coping with Bullying: Variations by Adolescents’ Self-Reported Victimization and Parents’ Awareness of Bullying Involvement

Bullying has been recognized as an important risk factor for mental health. A growing number of researchers have encouraged parents to work collaboratively with schools to prevent and intervene in bullying situations. This study explores the relationship between parents’ awareness of bullying involvement, adolescents’ self-reported victimization, and six possible parents’ responses to their child’s victimization. The participants were 1044 seventh–tenth grade students and their parents. Logistic regressions analyses were applied to determine if parents’ awareness of victimization and adolescents’ self-reporting of victimization were associated with parents’ responses to bullying victimization. The results showed that parents’ awareness of bullying and adolescents’ self-reported victimization were only associated with the “defends herself/himself” and “talks to bully” response. In other words, the parents who believe their child has been bullied are less likely to encourage their children to talk with the bully, and when children are victimized, it is less likely that their parents will encourage them to defend themselves or talk with the bully.