Prevalence of Aggressive Behavior in Greek Elementary School Settings from Teachers' Perspectives

The present study aims to estimate the prevalence of bullying in Greek elementary schools and to study the risk factors that lead to bullying episodes. A structured questionnaire was given to 221 teachers of elementary schools and 71 kindergarten teachers from urban and rural Greek schools. They were asked to note the forms and the frequency of aggressive behaviors that they had witnessed during the school years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, as well as the sociodemographic characteristics of the aggressive children involved. Statistical analyses of the data were conducted, and the obtained results show that specific forms of aggression are significantly correlated with gender and low academic performance. In addition, there is no form of aggressive behavior that is associated with the perpetrator's age, nationality or family status. Further, the results of the factor analysis revealed four dominant factors in the aggressive behavior observed by teachers. The forms of bullying and the prevailing factors of aggressive behavior that dominate in Greek school settings are reported in the present study. Furthermore, a novel evaluation tool for teachers could potentially be developed based on the results of the present study.

Bayesian Approach to Multivariate Component-Based Logistic Regression: Analyzing Correlated Multivariate Ordinal Data

Applications of component-based models have gained much attention as a means of accompanying dimension reduction in the regression setting and have been successfully implemented to model a univariate outcome in the behavioral and social sciences. Despite the prevalence of correlated ordinal outcome data in the fields, however, most of the extant component-based models have been extended to address the multivariate ordinal issue with a simplified but unrealistic assumption of independence, which may lead to biased statistical inferences. Thus, we propose a Bayesian methodology for a component-based model that accounts for unstructured residual covariances, while regressing multivariate ordinal outcomes on pre-defined sets of predictors. The proposed Bayesian multivariate ordinal logistic model re-expresses ordinal outcomes of interest with a set of latent continuous variables based on an approximate multivariate t-distribution. This contributes not only to developing an efficient Gibbs sampler, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm, but also to facilitating the interpretation of regression coefficients as log-transformed odds ratio. The empirical utility of the proposed method is demonstrated through analyzing a subset of data, extracted from the 2009 to 2010 Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study that investigates risk factors of four different forms of bullying perpetration and victimization: physical, social, racial, and cyber.

Hazers' Personality Characteristics and the Perception of School Climate in Slovenia

This article presents the initiation rite for the admission of newcomers to Slovenian upper secondary education, which is called "pheasanting" and has similar characteristics to hazing. It examines the relationship between certain personality traits of hazers with their perception of the school climate and the severity of the hazing activities they engage in (subtle, harassing, and violent hazing). In a sample of 460 students in the fourth grade of upper secondary education, 25.4% of them had carried out hazing in the previous 3 years, of which 47% performed only subtle, 24% harassment, and 29% violent hazing. Violent and harassment hazers justified their actions much more often than subtle hazers by dominating and distorting of the consequences and by diffusing responsibility. They also had less empathy and perceived the school climate as enabling more aggressive attitude. However, violent hazers had the most negative attitude toward hazing, while harassment hazers found hazing most acceptable. Finally, some practical implications of the results at individual and school level are discussed.

Gender-sensitive school environment and bullying victimization among adolescent girls: A multilevel study in Nepal

BACKGROUND

Bullying is an understudied global social problem. While school-level factors are a recognized influence on bullying victimization, the elements of a 'girl-friendly' school that may reduce the risk of bullying victimization among girls and prevent dropout is understudied in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study used baseline data from the evaluation of the Room-to-Read (RtR) Girls' Education Program (GEP) in Nepal to assess the relationship of a conceptually grounded gender-equitable school (GES) index with girls' risk of direct and relational bullying victimization, adjusted for potential confounders at the individual and school levels.

METHODS

The school sample included all 24 RtR GEP schools and 25 community schools attended by girls in a comparison cohort, representing 729 grade six girls with complete outcome data. We employed multilevel negative binomial regression to assess the relationship between the GES score (higher scores indicate greater support for girls), and girls' risk of peer victimization, controlling for individual- and school-level covariates.

RESULTS

On average, girls reported 2.84 direct victimizations and 0.27 relational victimizations in the prior week. The first component of the GES index, a generalized measure of school-level support for girls, showed a significant negative relationship with weekly relational bullying victimization in models with all school- and individual-level covariates. In the full model, a one-point higher score on the generalized GES component accounted for a 26% lower risk of relational bullying victimization in the prior week.

CONCLUSION

School-level policies, practices, and pedagogy designed to support girls may reduce their exposure to relational aggression, a form of bullying that girls most often perpetrate. In LMICs, the school may be an ideal place to raise awareness about the types and effects of peer bullying and to promote prosocial bystander behavior. Further research is needed to identify factors related to other forms of bullying.

How Does Guilt, Influence and Attitudes Effect the Role We Play in Bullying? The Self-Perception Measure

Variations in perceived feelings of guilt, influence, and attitudes can alter a person's behavior. The following article focused on the development and evaluation of a measure that explored how these self-perceptions affect the behaviour of the various participant roles involved in bullying situations. The participant roles explored included the bully, assistant, reinforcer, victim, defender, and outsider. The initial measure started with 30-items; 10-items for each measure (guilt, influence, and attitudes). The principal component analysis helped reduced the total number of items to 15 with guilt, influence, and attitudes all broken up into two components. Internal guilt measured the respondent's guilt based on their own actions, external guilt measured the level of guilt based on the presence of others. Internal influence measured the respondent's perceived influence on others and external influence measured the influence of others on the respondent's role. Internal attitudes measured a person's attitudes towards bullying and external attitudes measured a person's perceived disassociation between their attitudes and their role. The results showed acceptable to good reliability on all measures except internal influence. Future researchers exploring participant roles associated with bullying can use this measure to better understand the motives behind specific behaviors.

Why do children and adolescents bully their peers? A critical review of key theoretical frameworks

Bullying is a significant public health problem for children and adolescents worldwide. Evidence suggests that both being bullied (bullying victimisation) and bullying others (bullying perpetration) are associated with concurrent and future mental health problems. The onset and course of bullying perpetration are influenced by individual as well as systemic factors. Identifying effective solutions to address bullying requires a fundamental understanding of why it occurs. Drawing from multi-disciplinary domains, this review provides a summary and synthesis of the key theoretical frameworks applied to understanding and intervening on the issue of bullying. A number of explanatory models have been used to elucidate the dynamics of bullying, and broadly these correspond with either system (e.g., social-ecological, family systems, peer-group socialisation) or individual-level (e.g., developmental psychopathology, genetic, resource control, social-cognitive) frameworks. Each theory adds a unique perspective; however, no single framework comprehensively explains why bullying occurs. This review demonstrates that the integration of theoretical perspectives achieves a more nuanced understanding of bullying which is necessary for strengthening evidence-based interventions. Future progress requires researchers to integrate both the systems and individual-level theoretical frameworks to further improve current interventions. More effective intervention across different systems as well as tailoring interventions to the specific needs of the individuals directly involved in bullying will reduce exposure to a key risk factor for mental health problems.

Bullying: Effects on School-Aged Children, Screening Tools, and Referral Sources

Bullying is not a new concept or behavior, and is now gaining national attention as a growing public health concern. Bullying leads to short- and long-term physical and psychological damage to both the victims and the bullies. The serious implications of bullying drive a clinical mandate for teachers and school nurses to be educated and adequately trained to identify and address bullying within schools. This review of the literature describes screening tools that can be utilized to identify both victims and bullies. In addition, referral services utilizing collaborative intervention measures are discussed. This literature review will help school nurses and teachers to identify and expand their role in school-wide bullying prevention and intervention measures.

BULLYING BEHAVIOUR OF ADOLESCENTS BASED ON GENDER, GANG AND FAMILY

Introduction: Bullying is a social problem which is part of aggressive violent behaviour done continuously and have negative impact to victims and its subject and happened at school. This study aimed to know the description of knowledge and adolescents behavior about bullying based on their age, gang, and family. Methods: This study used analytic descriptive design with number of sample was 246 adolescents from grade 1, 2, 3 of senior high school which used stratified random sampling. Instruments of this study were knowledge questioner, and modified of The Bullying Prevalence Questionnaire in guttman and likert scale. Data analysis used cross tabulation. Result: Data show that adolescents have a good knowledge (93.9%) and less (6.1%). Bullying subjects were 93.9% and victims 94.7%. Forms of verbal bullying indicated the subjects (93.1%) and victims (92.3%). Bullying subjects majority occurred in males (94.1%) and women become victims (96.3%). Numbers of bullying subjects do not have a gang (94.5%), while those with gang as victims (95.2%). There were five adolescents who live in stepfamilies become subjects and victims of bullying. Conclusion: The majority of adolescents have good knowledge about bullying, bullying form the vast majority were verbal bullying with subjects and victims of bullying who occurs in all classes. The majority of bullying subjects do not have a gang, and as the majority of victims have a gang. Almost all adolescents with different family types become subjects and victims of bullying. Therefore, an intensive educational effort and spiritual needs to be done to change the behavior of adolescents to be adolescents with well character.

Adolescents' explicit and implicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers with different bullying participant roles

This study examined how adolescents evaluate bullying at three levels of specificity: (a) the general concept of bullying, (b) hypothetical peers in different bullying participant roles, and (c) actual peers in different bullying participant roles. Participants were 163 predominantly ethnic majority adolescents in The Netherlands (58% girls; M_age=16.34years, SD=0.79). For the hypothetical peers, we examined adolescents' explicit evaluations as well as their implicit evaluations. Adolescents evaluated the general concept of bullying negatively. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical and actual peers in the bullying roles depended on their own role, but adolescents' implicit evaluations of hypothetical peers did not. Adolescents' explicit evaluations of hypothetical peers and actual peers were different. Hypothetical bullies were evaluated negatively by all classmates, whereas hypothetical victims were evaluated relatively positively compared with the other roles. However, when adolescents evaluated their actual classmates, the differences between bullies and the other roles were smaller, whereas victims were evaluated the most negatively of all roles. Further research should take into account that adolescents' evaluations of hypothetical peers differ from their evaluations of actual peers.

Who Is Blameworthy? : Social Identity and Inter-Group Bullying

Using social identity theory (SIT; Tajfel and Turner, 1979) and social identity development theory (SIDT; Nesdale, 1999) as a framework, this study investigated attitudes towards inter-group bullying at school. Preadolescent boys and girls ( n = 314) participated in a study, utilizing the short story technique, in which they were induced to identify with their own school-class, whose social status was manipulated to be high or low. A story was told in which the group engaged in an episode of physical bullying as either the bully group or the victim group. The designed out-group was another class of the same school. Attribution of blame to both the in-group and the out-group was assessed. Results showed a higher preference for the in-group when it was the victimized group. Moreover, participants blamed the high status out-group more than any other group. The results are discussed in relation to the literature about bullying and the application of SIT and SIDT to this domain.

Aggressive and Antisocial Behaviours Among Secondary School Students in Botswana: The Influence of Family and School Based Factors

This study examined the relationship between family factors and secondary school students’ aggressive and antisocial behaviours. Participants were 1,478 junior and senior secondary school students from four major urban centres in Botswana, aged 12-20. Results showed significant prevalence of self-reported aggressive tendencies and antisocial behaviours among secondary school students in Botswana. Boys rated themselves higher on aggression, use of alcohol and drugs and carrying and using dangerous weapons compared to girls. High scores on antisocial and aggressive behaviours were significantly related to poor parent-child relations and low parental monitoring. The results are consistent with findings from previous studies. The findings have important implications to violence prevention programs for children and adolescents. Suggestions for future research and the development of intervention programs are made.

A review of bullying prevention and intervention in South Korean schools: an application of the social-ecological framework

School bullying is a serious social problem that results in potentially severe and long lasting consequences for youth, parents, teachers, and school officials. Commensurate with the serious nature and outcomes of bullying, there has been a number of bullying prevention and intervention programs and measures in schools. The current review provides a synthesis and evaluation of the existing research on bullying prevention and intervention strategies in South Korean schools, set within Bronfenbrenner's social-ecological contexts, including the micro- (i.e., family, peer, school), meso- (i.e., family-school), and macro- (i.e., religion, policies) systems. We also discuss the strengths and limitations of the research reviewed and provide directions for future research focusing on major empirical gaps in the literature on bullying prevention and intervention strategies in South Korea.

Affective and cognitive empathy as mediators of gender differences in cyber and traditional bullying

Gender differences in bullying behavior among adolescents have been observed, but the reasons for the discrepancy in males’ and females’ bullying experiences has been the focus of few studies. This study examined the role of the cognitive and affective empathy in explaining gender differences in bullying through multiple mediation analysis. The participants of the study were 795 Turkish adolescents (455 females, 340 males) ranging in age from 13- to 18-years-old. The Revised Cyber Bullying Inventory, Traditional Bullying Questionnaire and Basic Empathy Scale were utilized to gather data from participants. Findings revealed that the total effect of cognitive and affective empathy mediated the gender differences in traditional bullying in addition to the unique effect of affective empathy. However, only the combined effect of affective and cognitive empathy mediated the gender differences in cyberbullying. The findings are discussed in the light of the related literature and implications for practice.

Cultivating Reputations: The Social Goal of Western Australian Primary School Bullies

Aim: This research sought to determine the significance of reputation in the lives of bullies particularly in relation to the social purposes it serves and the goals that are met through its enhancement. Method: One hundred and thirty-two (62 males and 70 females) Western Australian Grades 5, 6 and 7 primary school children completed the Reputation Enhancement scale. Of these students, 38 had official records of suspension from school for bullying peers. Major Findings: A multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences between bullies and nonbullies in their reputational orientations. Bullies admired peers involved in nonconforming activities and believed that peers of the same age held similar views. Furthermore, these bullies believed that others perceived them as nonconforming and as breaking the rules, and they (i.e., the bullies) ideally wished to be perceived in this way. These findings are discussed in the light of reputation enhancement theory as a motivator for bullying and the approaches that schools might take to address it.

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.

The moderating effect of Machiavellianism on the relationships between bullying, peer acceptance, and school adjustment in adolescents

This study examined the moderating effect of Machiavellianism on the relationships between bullying, peer acceptance, and school adjustment (rule-following behavior and academic performance) among 216 middle school 7th-graders in Taipei, Taiwan. The participants were divided into two groups according to their Machiavellianism. Multi-group path analysis showed that for those who were low in Machiavellianism condition, physical and verbal bullying was negatively linked to peer acceptance and academic performance while no significant association was found for the high-Machiavellianism group. Bullying was negatively, yet non-significantly, associated with rule-following behavior for both groups. The results largely supported the buffering effect of Machiavellianism on the negative outcomes of bullying. Implications for school-violence prevention and for research on adaptive bullies are discussed.

Friends can hurt you: Examining the coexistence of friendship and bullying among early adolescents

Friendship is typically assumed to be a protective factor for victims of school bullying, so the possibility of victimization by friends is rarely explored. This study examines the prevalence of positive affiliation between the victims and aggressors in verbal and physical bullying. Peer nomination inventories were used to assess the friendship and dyadic bullying tendency among 237 Taiwanese middle school 7th graders. A total of 1,084 incidents of dyadic verbal bullying and 1,327 incidents of physical bullying were reported by the respondents. Friendship nominations among aggressors and victims could be unilateral (a peer nominates someone who does not in turn nominate them) or reciprocal (both the aggressor and the victim nominate each other as friends). Reciprocal nominations between victims and aggressors occurred in approximately 8% of cases of verbal bullying incidents and about 12% of physical bullying incidents. About 8% of victims of verbal or physical bullying unilaterally nominated the aggressor as a friend, with 9% and 12% of aggressors nominating victims as friends in the two cases. The self-reported strength of friendships was high among the reciprocal friends. Implications for the existence of bullying within friendship dyads for research and practice are discussed.

Students' personal traits, violence exposure, family factors, school dynamics and the perpetration of violence in Taiwanese elementary schools

School violence has become an international problem affecting the well-being of students. To date, few studies have examined how school variables mediate between personal and family factors and school violence in the context of elementary schools in Asian cultures. Using a nationally representative sample of 3122 elementary school students in Taiwan, this study examined a theoretical model proposing that negative personal traits, exposure to violence and parental monitoring knowledge have both direct influences as well as indirect influences mediated through school engagement, at-risk peers and poor student-teacher relationships on school violence committed by students against students and teachers. The results of a structural equation modeling analysis provided a good fit for the sample as a whole. The final model accounted for 32% of the variance for student violence against students and 21% for student violence against teachers. The overall findings support the theoretical model proposed in this study. Similar findings were obtained for both male and female students. The study indicated that to reduce school violence more effectively in the context of elementary schools, intervention may exclusively focus on improving students' within-school experiences and the quality of the students' relationships with teachers and school peers.

Implications of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) for Test Development and Use

Implications of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) on the development and use of tests in school settings are enumerated. We predict increased demand for behavioural assessments that consider a person’s activities, participation and person-environment interactions, including measures that: (a) address contextual features; (b) rely on third-party respondents; (c) depend on observational approaches; (d) comprise batteries of tests developed simultaneously or co-normed and (e) emphasize process and progress monitoring. We review some tests from the United States that respond to each emerging demand and describe the international implications of these demands. We close by describing the implications of the ICF model and its associated changes in testing practices for service delivery and student outcomes.

Social group norms, school norms, and children's aggressive intentions

This study examined whether the effect of social group norms on 7- and 10-year-old children's aggression can be moderated or extinguished by contrary school norms. Children (n=384) participated in a simulation in which they were assigned membership in a social group for a drawing competition against an outgroup. Participants learnt that their group had a norm of inclusion, exclusion, or exclusion-plus-relational aggression, toward non-group members, and that the school either had a norm of inclusion, or no such norm. Findings indicated that group norms influenced the participants' direct and indirect aggressive intentions, but that the school norm moderated the group norm effect, with the school's norm effect tending to be greater for indirect vs. direct aggression, males vs. females, and younger vs. older participants. Discussion focused on how school norms can be developed, endorsed, and presented so that they have their most lasting effect on children.

The Perpetration of School Violence in Taiwan

Using a nationally representative sample in Taiwan, this study aims to describe the prevalence of perpetration of school violence in Taiwan. The study explores how gender, age and school type relate to students’ perpetration of violence in an Asian culture context. The sample included 14,022 students from elementary to high schools in grades 4 to 12. Students were given an anonymous questionnaire to report their violent behaviour in schools. The findings presented in this study provide insight on why perpetrators commit violent acts against their peers. Findings suggest the prevalence of perpetration may vary from setting to setting but the influences of age, gender and school type on violence tend to be similar in Taiwan to what theories expect based on studies done in Western cultures. A majority of perpetrators reported engaging in violence stemming from rough and tumble play or from situations where they were initially having fun. Findings suggest that promoting the quality of peer interactions could be a major violence prevention strategy.

Personal and interpersonal correlates of bullying behaviors among Korean middle school students

This study simultaneously investigates personal and interpersonal traits that were found to be important factors of bullying behavior using data collected from 1,238 randomly selected Korean middle school students. Using a modified and expanded definition of bullying based on a more culturally sensitive approach to bullying, this study categorizes bullies into three groups: Type I (minor-covert-nonchronic bullying), Type II (moderate-covert-chronic or severe-overt-nonchronic bullying), and Type III (severe-overt-chronic bullying). In addition, this study empirically tests several factors for the first time. Those factors are fun-seeking tendency, teachers' attitude toward bullying, teachers' effectiveness of intervention, teachers' moral authority, power dynamic, and pseudofriendship. The comparison across three groups provided unique findings that different factors were differently related to different groups of bullies. Specifically, teachers have influence on bullying only for the moderate group (Type II), and parents have influence on bullying only for the minor group (Type I). The most important and constant factors across all different groups were prior bullying victimization experience and fun-seeking tendency.

The Relationship Between School Achievement and Peer Harassment in Canadian Adolescents

The relationship between school achievement and peer harassment was examined using individual and peer characteristics as mediating factors. The sample consisted of adolescents age 12—15 years ( n = 4,111) drawn from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which is a stratified random sample of 22,831 households in Canada. When factors related to achievement and harassment were considered simultaneously, disruptive behaviour problems and peer interactions were found to mediate the link between achievement and harassment, χ2(32) = 300.00, p < 0.001. These results suggest that adolescents who are harassed by their peers are at risk of experiencing poor school achievement if they exhibit disruptive behaviour problems and poor peer interactions. Implications for school psychologists are presented.

Social psychological processes in family and school: more evidence on their relative etiological significance for bullying behavior

This study looked at students' perceptions of the three socialization processes of connection, regulation, and autonomy with their parents and teachers, and the relation of these issues to bullying peers. Self-reported data were collected from a representative sample of Norwegian eighth graders (N=2,083, 1,010 boys, and 1,073 girls). Findings partially confirm our hypotheses that we generated from earlier research into general antisocial behavior. For both genders, parent regulation and teacher regulation had a direct impact on bullying behavior. Parent connection and teacher connection also had an impact on bullying behavior, but these effects were indirect and were mediated by regulation and autonomy from parents and teachers. Some of the socialization processes had different impacts on bullying behavior for boys and girls. Parent autonomy and teacher autonomy had impact (although weak) on bullying behavior for boys only. In general, the variables related to the parents were of more importance for bullying behavior than the variables related to the teachers.

Determinants of adolescents' active defending and passive bystanding behavior in bullying

The literature on participant roles in bullying lacks empirical studies that seek to explain what differentiates defenders from outsiders (or passive bystanders). The present study tested a conceptual model in which two personal characteristics of early adolescent students (empathy and perceived social self-efficacy) were considered as possible determinants of their participant behavior in bullying episodes. A total of 294 Italian early adolescents (mean age=13.3 years, range: 12-14) participated in the study. The structural equation modeling showed that high levels of empathic responsiveness were positively associated with both active defending and passive bystanding behavior, as assessed through peer nominations. In contrast, high levels of social self-efficacy were associated with helping behavior, whereas low levels of social self-efficacy were associated with passive bystanding behavior. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for researchers and educational practitioners.

ProACT + E: Ein Programm zur Prävention von “bullying“ an Schulen und zur Förderung der positiven Entwicklung von Schülern

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Diese Studie untersucht die Wirksamkeit eines für weiterführende Schulen entwickelten universalen, primärpräventiven Mehr-Ebenen-Programms. Fragestellung: Es wurde angenommen, dass a) durch die Einführung des kognitiv-verhaltenstheoretisch orientierten Trainingsprogramms Bullying/Viktimisierung in Schulen wirkungsvoll reduziert und positives Sozialverhalten verbessert werden kann und b) das Verhalten der Schüler sich dann am nachhaltigsten in der gewünschten Richtung verändert, wenn die Eltern mit einem Elterntraining einbezogen werden. Methode: An der Studie nahmen 145 Schüler (5. Klassen; Realschule) teil. Die Evaluation des Programms erfolgte in Form eines Prä-/Posttestdesigns mit Kontrollgruppe (Nachuntersuchung nach 2 Wochen und 4 Monaten). Die Schulen wurden zufällig drei Bedingungen (proACT: Klassentraining, proACT + E: Klassen- und Elterntraining, Kontrollgruppe: unspezifische Intervention) zugewiesen. Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse auf der Basis der Selbsteinschätzungen der Schüler zeigen eine signifikante und stabile Reduktion problematischer Verhaltensweisen (verbale Aggression, Gewaltbereitschaft). Diese Verbesserung der sozialen Kompetenzen und Konfliktlösungsmöglichkeiten der Schüler gelingt nur unter Einbeziehung der Eltern. Schlussfolgerung: Die Befunde belegen die Akzeptanz, die Einsetzbarkeit und die Wirksamkeit eines schulbasierten Gewaltpräventionsprogramms. Die Nichtberücksichtigung der Eltern verhindert diese positiven Effekte.