Patterns of peer- and teacher-rated aggression, victimization, and prosocial behavior in an urban, predominantly African American preadolescent sample: Associations with peer-perceived characteristics

A Latent Transition Analysis of Aggression Victimization Patterns During the Transition from Primary to Middle School

School transitions provide contexts for adolescents to reconstruct peer relationships and re-establish social positions. Scarce research has captured the transition of aggressor and victim roles during this period and examined associated factors. To investigate the stability and shifts of aggressor and victim roles following the transition to middle school, this study conducted latent transition analysis with 1261 Chinese adolescents (32.6% female, Mage in Grade 6 = 12.1 years, SD = 0.7). Three subgroups were identified across Grades 5 to 8: aggressive-victims, victims and uninvolved. Adolescents were more likely to transition from aggressive-victim and victim roles to the uninvolved group during the transition to middle school compared to the transitions within the same educational phase. Males and those with insecure parental attachment were at higher risk of being and remaining in the involved groups. The findings underscore the dynamic nature of adolescent aggression and victimization and highlight the transition to middle school as a critical window for interventions aimed at helping adolescents disengage from aggression and victimization.

'Prosociality' in Daily School Life and Early Adolescents' Peer Aggression: A Multilevel Latent Profile Analysis Approach

We aimed to typify prosocial characteristics of aggressive youth. We classified early adolescents based on daily configurations of prosocial behavior and autonomous prosocial motivations (performing prosocial behavior for identified and intrinsic reasons) and controlled prosocial motivations (performing prosocial behavior for external and introjected reasons) and explored the links between the obtained sub-groups and peer aggression. The sample included 242 Israeli six-graders [Mage = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. At the daily level, adolescents self-reported on prosocial behaviors and their autonomous and controlled prosocial motivations for ten consecutive days. At the trait level, adolescents reported on global, reactive, and proactive peer aggression. Teachers reported on adolescents' global peer aggression. Using multilevel latent profile analysis, we identified four day-level profiles of prosociality: 'high prosocial autonomous' (39% of days), 'low prosocial' (35%), 'average prosocial controlled' (14%), and 'high prosocial bi-motivation' (13%). At the adolescent level, we identified four sub-groups, each characterized by one dominant daily profile: 'stable high autonomy' (33% of adolescents); 'stable high bi-motivation' (12%); 'often average controlled' (16%); 'often low' (39%). Higher self-reported aggressive adolescents, particularly proactive aggressive, had the least chance of being in the 'stable high autonomy' sub-group of all sub-groups. Teacher-reported aggressive adolescents had the least likelihood of being in the 'stable high autonomy' sub-group and the most likelihood of being in the 'often low' sub-group. In sum, peer aggression is a function of the configured phenomenology of prosocial behavior and motivations, with high prosocial autonomously motivated youth being the least aggressive.

Long-term consequences of bullying involvement in first grade

Few prospective studies have examined how early bullying experiences impact long-term adjustment and the differential impact of children's co-occurring bullying and peer victimization involvement on adjustment in adulthood. This study addressed these gaps by examining subgroups of first graders involved in bullying and associations with four outcomes in early adulthood, including (a) Major Depression diagnosis, (b) post-high school suicide attempt, (c) on-time high school graduation, and (d) criminal justice involvement. Additionally, middle school standardized reading test scores and suspensions were examined as potential mechanisms through which early bullying involvement is associated with adult outcomes. Participants were 594 children from nine urban elementary schools in the United States who participated in a randomized controlled trial of two school-based universal prevention interventions. Latent profile analyses using peer nominations identified three subgroups: (a) High involvement bully-victims, (b) Moderate involvement bully-victims, and (c) Low/No involvement youth. Compared to the No/Low involvement class, High involvement bully-victims were less likely to graduate high school on time (OR = 0.48, p = .002) and Moderate involvement bully-victims were more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system (OR = 1.37, p = .02). High bully-victims were at greater risk for both not graduating high school on-time and criminal justice system involvement, which were partially explained by 6th grade standardized reading test scores and suspensions. Moderate bully-victims were less likely to graduate high school on time, which was partially explained by 6th grade suspensions. Findings highlight how early bully-victim involvement increases risk for difficulties that affect adult quality of life.

Predicting youth aggression with empathy and callous unemotional traits: A Meta-analytic review

Historically, empathy has been thought to motivate prosocial behaviour and inhibit aggressive behaviour. Contrary to current assumptions and theoretical support, a meta-analysis revealed a small effect of empathy on aggression among adults (Vachon, Lynam, & Johnson, 2014). The current study sought to determine whether broadening the focus from empathy to include other socially relevant affective characteristics (i.e., callous-unemotional traits) was advantageous in predicting aggressive behaviour. As little is known about the strength of this association among youth, the current study meta-analytically examined 192 unique effect sizes drawn from published and unpublished studies reporting on samples of children and adolescents. Analyses were conducted across general, cognitive, and emotional empathy, as well as callous-unemotional traits, and general, direct, indirect, proactive, and reactive aggression. Significant variability was noted across effect sizes. Consistent with a prior meta-analysis involving adults (Vachon et al., 2014), small to moderate associations were identified between aggression and traditional measures of empathy (i.e., general, emotional, cognitive); these effects ranged from r = -0.06 to -0.26. Among broader measures of emotional style (i.e., callous-unemotional traits), moderate to large effects were found; ranging from r = 0.30 to 0.37. Results suggested that broader affective measures may be more strongly associated with aggression than empathy alone. The results raise questions about the nature of empathy assessment and indicate the utility of targeting multiple emotion-related factors during treatment to effectively reduce aggressive behaviour. In particular, the results underscore of the importance of considering the limited prosocial emotions specifier (perhaps trans-diagnostically given the varied nature of the sample) when considering implications for prognosis and treatment targets.

Identifying Relationally Aggressive Students: How Aligned are Teachers and Peers?

Relational aggression is characterized by attempts to damage another's relationships or social status and is a major concern affecting academic, socioemotional, behavioral, and health outcomes, particularly for urban, minority youth. Teachers and peers frequently disagree about which students are relationally aggressive. Factors associated with peer and teacher discordant and concordant identification of relationally aggressive students were explored including prosocial behavior, perceived popularity, academic competence, and gender. Participants included 178 3rd-5th grade students across 11 urban classrooms. Findings revealed that students were more likely to be rated as relationally aggressive by their peers but not their teacher as scores on peer nominations for prosocial behavior decreased, while teacher-rated academic motivation/participation increased. Female students were more likely to be concordantly identified by peers and teachers as relationally aggressive when ratings for overt aggression increased. These results highlight the utility of obtaining ratings from multiple informants as well as the difficulty in accurately identifying all students who may benefit from interventions targeting relational aggression. Findings also suggest factors that may be related to the potential shortcomings of current measures and provide avenues for additional research to improve detection of relationally aggressive students.

Latent classes of aggression and peer victimization: Measurement invariance and differential item functioning across sex, race-ethnicity, cohort, and study site

Peer victimization is common and linked to maladjustment. Prior research has typically identified four peer victimization subgroups: aggressors, victims, aggressive‐victims, and uninvolved. However, findings related to sex and racial‐ethnic differences in subgroup membership have been mixed. Using data collected in September of 2002 and 2003, this study conducted confirmatory latent class analysis of a racially‐ethnically diverse sample of 5415 sixth graders (49% boys; 50.6% Black; 20.9% Hispanic) representing two cohorts from 37 schools in four U.S. communities to replicate the four subgroups and evaluate measurement invariance of latent class indicators across cohort, sex, race‐ethnicity, and study site. Results replicated the four‐class solution and illustrated that sociodemographic differences in subgroup membership were less evident after accounting for differential item functioning.

Effects of a Whole-School Health Intervention on Clustered Adolescent Health Risks: Latent Transition Analysis of Data from the INCLUSIVE Trial

Whole-school interventions are a promising approach to preventing bullying and aggression while promoting broader health. The main analyses from a trial of the INCLUSIVE whole-school intervention reported reductions in bullying victimisation but not aggression and improved mental well-being. Latent transition analysis can examine how interventions ‘move’ people between classes defined by multiple outcomes over time. We examined at baseline what classes best defined individuals’ bullying, aggression and mental well-being and what effects did the intervention have on movement between classes over time? INCLUSIVE was a two-arm cluster-randomised trial with 20 high schools per arm, with 24-month and 36-month follow-ups. We estimated sequential latent class solutions on baseline data. We then estimated a latent transition model including baseline, 24-month and 36-month follow-up measurements. Our sample comprised 8179 students (4082 control, 4097 intervention arms). At baseline, classes were (1) bullying victims, (2) aggression perpetrators, (3) extreme perpetrators and (4) neither victims nor perpetrators. Control students who were extreme perpetrators were equally likely to stay in this class (27.0% probability) or move to aggression perpetrators (25.0% probability) at 24 months. In the intervention group, fewer extreme perpetrators students remained (5.4%), with more moving to aggression perpetrators (65.1%). More control than intervention extreme perpetrators moved to neither victims nor perpetrators (35.2% vs 17.8%). Between 24 and 36 months, more intervention students moved from aggression perpetrators to neither victims nor perpetrators than controls (30.1% vs 22.3%). Our findings suggest that the intervention had important effects in transitioning students to lower-risk classes.

Latent profiles of multidimensional prosocial behaviors: An examination of prosocial personality groups

The current study sought to determine how prosocial behaviors reflecting various motivations (altruistic and public prosocial behaviors) and situations (i.e., anonymous, compliant, dire, and emotional prosocial behaviors) jointly inform subtypes of prosocial personality groups. Undergraduates (N = 324, M age = 19.47 years, 80% female) completed a measure of these six prosocial behaviors (Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised). Latent profile analysis results supported a three-group solution: altruistic helpers (AH), public helpers (PH), and altruistic idealists (AI). The AH and AI profiles were defined by elevated altruistic prosocial behaviors, but the AH profile was higher on situational helping and socioemotive and sociocognitive correlates. The PH profile was characterized by elevated public prosocial behaviors and moderate levels of situational helping. These identified profiles support multiple competing ideas of the true nature of prosocial personality, but also introduce the possibility that some individuals idealize motives but fail to engage in behavior.

Evaluating the genetic susceptibility to peer reported bullying behaviors

Bullying is a significant public health concern with lasting impacts on youth. Although environmental risk factors for bullying have been well-characterized, genetic influences on bullying are not well understood. This study explored the role of genetics on early childhood bullying behavior. Participants were 561 children who participated in a longitudinal randomized control trial of a preventive intervention beginning in first grade who were present for the first grade peer nominations used to measure early childhood bullying and who provided genetic data during the age 19-21 year follow-up in the form of blood or saliva. Measures included a polygenic risk score (PRS) derived from a conduct disorder genome wide association study. Latent profile analysis identified three profiles of bullying behaviors during early childhood. Results suggest that the PRS was significantly associated with class membership, with individuals in the moderate bully-victim profile having the highest levels of the PRS and those in the high bully-victim profile having the lowest levels. This line of research has important implications for understanding genetic vulnerability to bullying in early childhood.