Using retrospective reports to develop profiles of harmful versus playful teasing experiences

INTRODUCTION

The current investigation's central goal was to elucidate the complex features of peer teasing episodes that individuals use to interpret teasing as harmful versus playful.

METHOD

In 2022-2023, we used semistructured interviews to gather retrospective reports of K-12 peer teasing experiences from a sample of 27 students from a university in southern Ontario, Canada (18-25 years old, 63% female, 78% White).

RESULTS

Content analysis revealed the multifaceted nature of teasing, with participants defining teasing as harmful, playful, or including elements of both harm and pleasure. Harmful teasing experiences often included content that was sensitive to the target, occurred between both friends and nonfriends, and often included a power differential with the teasing perpetrator having more power than the target. Targets recalled negative emotional responses, with behavioral responses to mitigate the situation and reduce further teasing. In contrast, playful teasing often occurred between friends or close friends, was often motivated by positive interpersonal motives (e.g., for encouragement), and had positive impacts on the relationship between perpetrator and target. However, despite benign intent, some playful teasing was marked by negative emotional responses and feelings of harm.

CONCLUSIONS

Results have implications for uncovering the nuanced and complex nature of teasing, and provide a preliminary profile of harmful versus playful teasing interactions.

Depressive Symptoms Prospectively Predict Peer Victimization: A Longitudinal Study Among Adolescent Females

Research has consistently demonstrated a relationship between peer victimization, a major issue in early adolescence, and depression. However, longitudinal studies examining the relationship between peer victimization and depressive symptoms have yielded mixed results. Thus, the current study examined how specific aspects of peer victimization and subtypes of depressive symptoms are related over a two-year period. Adolescent females (N = 265) completed a questionnaire battery at baseline and two-year follow-up. Results indicated that baseline depressive symptoms prospectively predict peer overt victimization, relational victimization, and decreased prosocial behaviors at follow-up; baseline peer victimization did not predict depressive symptoms at follow-up. Further, results demonstrate the differential predictive value of specific depressive symptoms for overt vs. relational aggression and decreased prosocial behavior. Taken together, this study provides insight into the impact of depressive symptoms on peer victimization and the importance of addressing peer relations in the context of treatment for adolescent depression.

A daily diary investigation of self-reported alcohol-related direct and indirect aggression

Research supports the relationship between alcohol use and direct aggression, however, scant research has examined the association between alcohol use and indirectly aggressive behavior. Further, extant research has relied on retrospective reporting of behaviors, which may be subject to recall bias. The daily diary methodology enables the assessment of both the between- and within-subject variation, as well as reduces the likelihood of biased reporting. Consequently, the current study utilized a daily diary design to examine (a) associations between daily alcohol use and alcohol-related aggressive behaviors (i.e., direct and indirect); and (b) the co-occurrence of alcohol-related direct and indirect aggression. Participants were 105 (80% female) college student drinkers. Students completed baseline questionnaires and up to 14 consecutive, daily surveys regarding their previous day alcohol use, alcohol-related direct aggression, and alcohol-related indirect aggression. Findings revealed that alcohol use was associated with same day alcohol-related direct and indirect aggression, after controlling for baseline alcohol use. Self-reported alcohol-related direct aggression was more likely to occur on days in which self-reported alcohol-related indirect aggression occurred, after controlling for dispositional aggression, trait self-control, and baseline alcohol use. Results of the study suggest that, similar to alcohol-related direct aggression, alcohol use is associated with an increased likelihood of alcohol-related indirect aggression. Further, the co-occurrence of alcohol-related indirect and direct aggression supports that individuals may be engaging in multiple types of aggressive behaviors. Findings extend previous cross-sectional and qualitative research suggesting that indirect aggression may co-occur, perhaps increasing in severity.

A New Universal Mean Girl: Examining the Discursive Construction and Social Regulation of a New Feminine Pathology

This article examines recent sensationalist media attention to mean girls. Popular constructions of the mean girl are argued to be rooted in a developmental psychology debate on girls as indirectly and relationally aggressive. The developmental psychology model of feminine aggression is analyzed as a postfeminist discourse, illustrated to pathologize girls through universalizing, essentializing and context-devoid models of girlhood, which contribute to a shift from notions of girls as vulnerable to girls as mean in popular culture. Constructions of the mean girl are also linked to postfeminist gender anxieties over middle-class girl power and girl success. Regulatory strategies emerging to manage mean girls are examined as oriented toward maintaining appropriate modes of repressive, white, middle-class femininity. When ‘other’ girls do figure in the mean girl story, it is through sensational incidences of isolated girl violence, held up as a dangerous risk of uncontained feminine aggression. Girlhood is argued to remain carefully regulated, through class and race-specific categories of femininity, which continue to produce normative (mean) and deviant (violent) girls.

Caffeinated and non-caffeinated alcohol use and indirect aggression: The impact of self-regulation

Research shows that heavier alcohol use is associated with physical aggression. Scant research has examined the way in which alcohol relates to other forms of aggression, such as indirect aggression (e.g., malicious humor, social exclusion). Given the possible negative consequences of indirect aggression and the limited evidence suggesting alcohol use can elicit indirectly aggressive responses, research is needed to further investigate the association between drinking behavior and indirect aggression. Additionally, specific alcoholic beverages, such as caffeinated alcoholic beverages (CABs; e.g., Red Bull and vodka), may potentiate aggression above the influence of typical use, and thus warrant examination with regard to indirect aggression. One factor that may impact the strength of the alcohol-indirect aggression and CAB-indirect aggression relationships is one's level of self-regulation. Consequently, our study examined the relationships between (1) alcohol use and indirect aggression, (2) CAB use and indirect aggression, and (3) self-regulation as a moderator. Participants were 733 (67.6% female) undergraduate students who reported their CAB and alcohol use, self-regulation, and aggressive behaviors. Results revealed that heavier alcohol use was associated with more frequent indirect aggression after controlling for dispositional aggression. Heavier CAB use was related to more frequent indirect aggression after accounting for typical use and dispositional aggression. Self-regulation moderated these associations such that for those with lower self-regulation, greater alcohol and CAB consumption was associated with greater indirect aggression. Our findings suggest that heavier alcohol and CAB consumption may be risk factors for engaging in indirect aggression and this risk is impacted by one's regulatory control.

Subtypes of aggressive behaviors: A developmental perspective

Aggressive behaviors in children and adolescents have undergone important conceptual and definitional modifications in the past two decades. In particular, subtypes of aggression have been proposed that separate the form and the function of the aggressive behaviors (i.e., social vs. physical aggression; reactive vs. proactive aggression). Moreover, new methodological tools have been developed to examine the developmental course of these subtypes, as well as their correlates. These conceptual and methodological innovations, in turn, have introduced new views of the development of aggressive behaviors. These “new views” contrast with more traditional perspectives about the evolution of aggressive behaviors from infancy to young adulthood, particularly with respect to the existence of individuals who begin to become aggressive by adolescence only. This article gives an overview of these definitional, conceptual, and methodological innovations. It also tries to reconcile different views about the development of aggressive behaviors from infancy through early adulthood. Theoretical and practical/clinical implications are also reviewed. The conclusion describes an integrative framework and identifies possible areas of research for the future.

Students’ and Teachers’ Views of Gender-Related Aspects of Aggression

This article enquires into the role of gender in the use of different forms of aggression and in the appearance of conflicts within the interactions between students of 12-17 years of age. In order to understand both aspects, the conversational fragments of students and teachers from two high schools are expounded; discourses obtained using a qualitative methodology with focus groups and individual interviews. The results suggest that aggression is used as a tool to solve certain problems between pairs of the same sex, but is also present in relationships between genders as a form of intimidation that tries to influence heterosexual encounters. The aggression between genders adopts subtle and less visible forms than the aggression in pairs of the same sex due to the negative social opinion that exists about forms of aggression directed towards women. The information presented possesses implications for researchers and teachers if we bear in mind that relationships between genders at these ages reflect future relationships as adults.

‘They Turned Around Like I Wasn’t There’

This study sought a clearer understanding of the aggressive behaviours and conflict resolution experiences of teenage girls. The participants were 39 Year 10 girls attending a single-sex school in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. The girls participated in a novel letter writing methodology designed to shadow adolescents’ existing use of letters as a form of communication between peers and encourage candour in their responses. The predominant indirect behaviours included talking about other girls, ignoring, neglecting and excluding peers and giving nasty looks. The girls explained that the victimization was primarily related to the manipulation and maintenance of their peer social networks. High levels of trust and intimacy were invested in their friendships providing the ideal forum for pain to be inflicted in powerful and effective, yet discreet, relational forms against one another. Victimization by others generated confusion and pain and, at times, empathy for the victims by onlookers. Consistent with the indirect, relational nature of girls’ victimization, in their resolution of conflicts, the girls often strove for the social support of peers.

Bullying in Portuguese Schools

A modified version of the Olweus school bullying questionnaire was administered to a sample of 4092 pupils, mainly aged 10–12, in ten middle schools, six in the north (Braga) and four in the south of Portugal (Lisbon). We present and discuss the results of this survey on the following topics: frequencies of being bullied and bullying others; types of bullying; places where bullying occurs and children’s opinions about the playground. These variables were analysed in terms of factors such as school grades, under-achievement, social class, gender and school location (north or south of the country). Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for bullying behaviour. For being bullied, an increased risk was found for male and low social class students. After multivariable adjustment, factors remaining significantly associated with bullying others were gender, school grade, social class and years of under-achievement. The results are compared to the results of other studies in Norway, UK, Italy and Ireland.

Identification of “At-risk” Students for Prevention and Early Intervention Programs in Secondary Schools

Recent epidemiological studies in Australia have found that adolescent mental health issues are an important public health problem (Sawyer et al., 2001). These problems are often manifested in the classroom. As many as one in five Australian children aged from 4 to 17 have significant mental health concerns (Zubrick, Silburn, Burton, & Blair, 2000). However, only one in four of these young people receive professional help (Sawyer et al., 2001). To assist in preventing these problems, schools in Australia have been trialling innovative strategies in mental health promotion, prevention and intervention such as the Gatehouse Project and MindMatters. When selected or indicated prevention strategies are employed there is a need for identification of those students either at-risk or who have mild symptoms of a disorder. This process needs to be efficient and effective, using multiple informants and multi-methods. This article reports on the process utilised by two Australian high schools that trialled an identification process for at-risk students for anxiety/depression using indicated prevention programs. The benefits of using teachers, support staff and student self-identification are discussed.

To Bully or Not to Bully, That Is Not the Question

Twenty-eight early adolescent boys and girls suspended from school for bullying provided accounts of the importance of reputation in their daily lives, specifically how they initiated, promoted, and then maintained their reputation through bullying. Overall, bullying was a deliberate choice perpetrated to attain a nonconforming reputation and was initially promoted through visibility of physical bullying. These actions became more covert, particularly among girls, during the promotion phase. Sex differences were most marked in the maintenance phase. Although both boys and girls used cyber bullying to deliberately induce a sense of apprehension and fear, boys also deliberately damaged their victim’s houses and gardens outside of school hours to induce a greater sense of fear and hence maintain their nonconforming reputation.

Peer relational victimization and somatic complaints during adolescence

PURPOSE

To develop effective prevention and intervention efforts that optimize adolescent health, factors must be identified that affect health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between somatic symptomatology and experiences with relational victimization (RV).

METHODS

We prospectively tested the unique role of relational peer victimization in predicting adolescents' somatic complaints (SC), while accounting for their previous physical symptoms and peer victimization experiences (i.e., relational and physical victimization), as well as concurrent experiences with physical victimization (PV). Questionnaires were administered to 1,595 students (52% females) from eight schools in one school district (grades, 5-8) in the Midwestern part of the United States during the fall and spring sessions of the academic school year. Self-reported measures included demographic characteristics, victimization experiences, and assessment of SC.

RESULTS

RV was a unique predictor of increased somatic symptoms, even after controlling for adolescents' sex, grade level, initial SC, previous victimization experiences, and concurrent experiences with PV. Notably, RV was a stronger predictor of somatic symptoms than was PV.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings underscore the need for a comprehensive approach when addressing adolescents' physical health symptoms. Adolescents may benefit from clinicians looking beyond the obvious and using gentle probing to uncover how unique experiences with RV may be associated with overall health.

School bullying by one or more ways: Does it matter and how do students cope?

Students (n = 452; ages 12—14 years) attending two South Australian metropolitan high schools completed the ‘Living & learning at school: Bullying at school’ survey in which they reported ways they were bullied and the strategies they would use to deal with bullying. Results showed that a small proportion of students were bullied in three or more ways, and that males and females differed in the coping strategies they would use if bullied. Significant differences were found between bullied and not bullied students in their use of ‘problem-focused’ in contrast to ‘emotion focused’, or ‘approach’ in contrast to ‘avoidance’ coping strategies, with bullied students more likely to use ‘avoidance’ strategies. Findings suggest that in terms of coping, it does matter whether or not a student is bullied in multiple ways.

Examining the Coping Response to Peer Relational Aggression Victimization

Purpose. Relational aggression, rumor spreading, backstabbing, and social isolation, is psychologically damaging for adolescent girls. The purpose of this study was to provide an explanation of victimization response after experiencing peer relational aggression victimization. Methods. Grounded theory techniques were used to gain an understanding of the victimization experience and the coping responses used. Findings. A theory of coping after experiencing peer relational aggression victimization was generated. Girls voiced feelings of hurt and anger after the experience and expressed the following ways of coping as a result: distancing from others, retaliation against the aggressor, discussing their feelings with friends and family, writing their feelings down, and/or confronting the aggressor. Clinical Implications. Nurses should be aware of the phenomenon and asses, for incidences of relational aggression victimization so that they may provide strategies to assist the adolescent and her family with positive coping mechanisms in order to prevent maladaptive responses.

Arab and Jewish elementary school students' perceptions of fear and school violence: Understanding the influence of school context

This inquiry explores variables that predict elementary school students' fear of attending school due to school violence and their overall judgments of school violence as a problem. Using a nationally representative sample (Israel) of 5,472 elementary-school-aged children, this study tested the hypotheses that: (a) young students' personal fear of attending school due to violence, and (b) students' assessment of a school violence problem, are best understood as separate conceptual constructs. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed theoretical model for the sample as a whole and separately for across gender and for Arab and Jewish students. Student fear of attending school due to violence was related directly to experiences of personal victimization on school grounds by students and teachers. Children's judgments of their schools' overall violence problem were influenced directly by the school climate, risky peer-group behaviours, and personal victimization. The findings provide evidence that the proposed theoretical model applies across gender groups and for both Arab and Jewish students. Implications for policy, theory, and future research are highlighted.

Peer victimization and depression in early-mid adolescence: A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

Despite considerable evidence for psychological distress among children and young people who experience peer victimization, cross-sectional studies cannot determine the direction of the relationship. Several recent studies have examined associations between victimization and distress. The majority find evidence for both directions but do not arbitrate between them; only one prior study has attempted to do this.

AIMS

To use longitudinal data to: (1) test competing hypotheses about the direction of the victimization-depression association; (2) investigate gender differences in the resulting models.

SAMPLE

Data were obtained from a Scottish school-based cohort (N=2,586).

METHODS

Self-completion questionnaires included a depression scale and questions on victimization at each age.

RESULTS

Despite shifts in and out of victim status, there was evidence of stability in both victimization and depression. Bivariate analyses showed positive relationships between victimization and depression. Structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that at age 13, this relationship was reciprocal, with a stronger path from victimization to depression than vice versa. However, at age 15, it was almost entirely due to a path from depression to victimization among boys. Models including cross-lagged paths fitted the data less well than those including simultaneous associations.

CONCLUSIONS

Current policy focuses on victimization as a cause of distress; however, professionals should be aware that vulnerable children and young people are likely to be the targets of victimization.

It’s “Mean,” But What Does It Mean to Adolescents? Relational Aggression Described by Victims, Aggressors, and Their Peers

Early adolescent girls and boys ( N = 33) with known histories of relational aggression and/or victimization gave detailed accounts of the nature, frequency, intensity, course, and impact of relational aggression among their peers. They also described reasons for, and forms of, aggression after being prompted by a series of hypothetical vignettes. Despite identifying many forms of aggression that were similar for girls and boys, some sex differences were found; girls were described as experiencing more victimization within close friendships than boys, with a focus on maintaining exclusivity. Boys described exclusion from larger groups with themes of masculinity, athletic skill, and/or perceived sexual identity. Girls’ and boys’ perceptions about the motivations for these different forms of relational aggression were quite similar. These included power, popularity, and wanting to fit in as well as the aggressors’ emotional states and the victims’ characteristics.

Regulation and rupture

Recent feminist theorizing has pointed to a `resurgent patriarchy' within neo-liberal postfeminist times, which re-orders and restabilizes the heterosexual matrix through a politics of `postfeminist masquerade' demanded of girls and women (McRobbie). This paper seeks to complicate this thesis, exploring the regulation and rupture of Butler's `heterosexual matrix' as a complex performative politics through which girls' conflictual relationships with themselves, and other girls and boys are staged and through which dominant versions of tweenage and teenage femininity are reinscribed but also reworked, in race and class specific ways. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's powerful conceptual repertoire for disrupting Oedipal logics in Anti-Oedipus, we offer a `molecular mapping', illustrating cracks and ruptures in what is a porous heterosexual matrix, exploring a rhythm of `deterritorializations' and `reterritorializations' of the normative in our respective ethnographic and narrative interviews with girls. We also trace more sustained ruptures of heteronormative femininity drawing upon Deleuze and Guattari's notion of `lines of flight' and Braidotti's concept of `alternative figuration'. We argue ruptures and alternative figurations are not constitutive of total `molar' resistance to norms, but are significant spaces of doing girl differently and crucial to map if we are to perceive the malleability and multiplicity of contemporary girl subjectivities, which exceed heteronormative femininity and phallogocentric desire.

Relation between childhood peer victimization and adult perfectionism: are victims of indirect aggression more perfectionistic?

Using two independent samples and two different measures of perfectionism, this study investigated the hypothesized relation between retrospective accounts of perceived peer-inflicted emotional abuse during childhood and perfectionism in adulthood. Emotional victimization ('indirect' aggression) is characterized by behavior in which mental harm is inflicted on victims through exclusionary acts, gossiping, and rumor spreading. Study one: Self-reported questionnaires of indirect victimization [DIAS; Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, and Osterman, 1992] and perfectionism [multidimensional perfectionism scale; Hewitt and Flett, 1991] were administered to 162 (mean age=20.14 years) female undergraduate psychology students. Results support the predicted positive relationship between recalled indirect peer victimization and current socially prescribed/self-oriented perfectionism. Study two: self-reports of indirect peer victimization and perfectionism (eating disorder inventory-perfectionism) were collected from 196 (mean age=19.5 years) female undergraduate students. Again, recalled indirect peer victimization was a statistically significant predictor of current socially prescribed/self-oriented perfectionism whereas recalled direct (physical, verbal) peer victimization held no relation. Discussion addresses the implications of these results, which hold importance for both the bullying and perfectionism literatures.

Examining Genetic and Environmental Effects on Social Aggression: A Study of 6-Year-Old Twins

Using a genetic design of 234 six-year-old twins, this study examined (a) the contribution of genes and environment to social versus physical aggression, and (b) whether the correlation between social and physical aggression can be explained by similar genetic or environmental factors or by a directional link between the phenotypes. For social aggression, substantial (shared and unique) environmental effects but only weak genetic effects were found. For physical aggression, significant effects of genes and unique environment were found. Bivariate modeling suggests that social and physical aggression share most of their underlying genes but only very few overlapping environmental factors. The correlation between the two phenotypes can also be explained by a directional effect from physical to social aggression.

Reducing Playground Bullying and Supporting Beliefs: An Experimental Trial of the Steps to Respect Program

Six schools were randomly assigned to a multilevel bullying intervention or a control condition. Children in Grades 3-6 (N=1,023) completed pre- and posttest surveys of behaviors and beliefs and were rated by teachers. Observers coded playground behavior of a random subsample (n=544). Hierarchical analyses of changes in playground behavior revealed declines in bullying and argumentative behavior among intervention-group children relative to control-group children, increases in agreeable interactions, and a trend toward reduced destructive bystander behavior. Those in the intervention group reported enhanced bystander responsibility, greater perceived adult responsiveness, and less acceptance of bullying/aggression than those in the control group. Self-reported aggression did not differ between the groups. Implications for future research on the development and prevention of bullying are discussed.

Identifying and targeting risk for involvement in bullying and victimization

Bullying is a relationship problem in which power and aggression are used to cause distress to a vulnerable person. To assess and address bullying and victimization, we need to understand the nature of the problem, how the problem changes with age and differs for boys and girls, the relevant risk factors (those individual or environmental indicators that may lead to bullying and victimization), and the protective factors that buffer the impact of risk. For children involved in bullying, we need to assess its extent and the associated social, emotional, psychological, educational, and physical problems. Bullying is a systemic problem; therefore, assessments of bullying need to extend beyond the individual child to encompass the family, peer group, school, and community. We recommend that assessments at each of these levels reflect the scientific research on bullying and victimization. With attention to the problems associated with bullying, we can work collectively to make schools and communities safer for children and youth.