Reciprocal Links Between Friendship Quality and Peer Victimization Among Middle Adolescents

There is a robust association between friendship quality and victimization in adolescence; yet, it remains unclear whether friendship quality may be linked causally with different forms of victimization in middle adolescence. To fill this gap, this study examines the bidirectional associations of friendship quality and relational/verbal victimization with data collected at two time points, 6 months apart, in a sample of 671 middle Chinese adolescents (Mage = 15.63, SDage = 0.73, 49% males). Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed a two-way relationship between friendship quality and victimization, which existed in both verbal and relational victimization. Multi-group panel analyses observed that the cross-lagged associations between friendship quality and relational/verbal victimization were only found for males, but not for females. This result suggests that adolescent males' victimization is both affected by and a predictor of friendship quality, with implications for youth prevention programs.

The school environment and bullying victimization among seventh graders with autism spectrum disorder: a cohort study

BACKGROUND

There is strong evidence to support the association between bullying and the onset of mental health conditions in students with ASD (autism spectrum disorder). In Taiwan, the seventh grade marks the first year of middle school, following elementary school. This period is also when peers tend to perform bullying behaviours to establish status among the peer group. Therefore, seventh grade is considered one of the most challenging times for students with ASD due to several changes within the school environment and the developmental changes that arise at this age. This study aims to assess the association between the school environment and bullying victimization among students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) enrolled in regular classes in their first year of middle school.

METHODS

Data were obtained from the Special Needs Education Longitudinal Study database located in the Survey Research Data Archive of Academia Sinica. The analysis included one hundred eighty-four seventh graders with ASD who were in regular classes across Taiwan. The primary variables under study were whether the participants had experienced social exclusion, insults or teasing, extortion, or sexual harassment over the past semester.

RESULTS

Participants with a higher positive friendship quality (P = 0.027) and who had received more peer support upon encountering difficulties in school (P = 0.041) were less likely to experience social exclusion. Participants with a higher positive friendship quality (P = 0.001) and a more positive classroom learning environment (P = 0.031) were less likely to have experienced insults or teasing. However, participants with more friends were more likely to be extorted (P = 0.015) and sexually harassed (P = 0.001) than those with fewer friends. Furthermore, participants in regular classes on a part-time basis were 2.59 times more likely to report sexual harassment than those in regular classes on a full-time basis (P = 0.021).

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that a supportive school environment reduces the likelihood that seventh-graders with ASD will be bullied. Clinicians should consider the association between the school environment and bullying victimization among adolescents with ASD in regular classes during their first year of middle school.

Social Media as a Platform for Cyberbullying of Individuals With Craniofacial Anomalies: A Preliminary Survey

Purpose The primary aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which individuals with facial and/or speech differences secondary to a craniofacial anomaly experienced bullying through social media platforms during late school age and adolescence. Method Using an online survey platform, a questionnaire was distributed via several public and private social media groups designated for individuals with craniofacial anomaly and their caregivers. Results The majority of participants (n = 38; 88.4%) indicated they had been bullied during late school-age and adolescence and that they believed this was due to their facial difference and/or speech disorder (n = 27; 71.1%). Almost one third indicated they had been victims of cyberbullying during this time (n = 12; 31.6%) with the most common venues being texting and Facebook. Despite the large percentage of participants who reported being bullied through social media, half (n = 6) indicated they did not often report these instances of cyberbullying. Conclusions As social media use continues to increase, it appears inevitable that cyberbullying will occur. Particularly vulnerable to both traditional and cyberbullying are individuals with craniofacial anomalies. Because of the specialized training of speech-language pathologists, school-based speech-language pathologists are in a unique position to play a key role in school-wide antibullying efforts and to educate school personnel on ways in which to support the needs of children with craniofacial anomalies both inside and outside of the classroom.

A dyadic perspective on aggressive behavior between friends

Youth are sometimes victimized by their friends, but we know little about the nature of these relationships. Taking a dyadic approach, we studied relationships characterized by both friendship and aggression. Participants (952 middle schoolers; 50% female; 44% Latinx) nominated friends and aggressive perpetrators and victims. Using two analytic samples of friend dyads (N = 6971) and aggressive dyads (N = 4662), results indicated that aggression by a friend was somewhat common. Compared with friend dyads without aggression, aggressive friend dyads were stronger (i.e., reciprocal) and longer lasting, though victimized youth were less satisfied with the friendship. Aggressive dyads who were friends more often had reciprocal aggression than aggressive dyads who were not friends. Results provide insight into the dynamics of aggression in close peer relationships.

Victimization by Friends and Victimization by Other Peers: Common Risk Factors or Mutual Influence?

Much research effort has been placed on understanding peer victimization. However, few studies have focused on victimization within friendships, which affects up to half of adolescents and bears similar consequences as victimization by the larger peer group. This study examined the temporal stability and the risk factors of victimization within friendships and victimization by other peers. In regard to the first objective, moderate to high levels of stability over a one-year period were expected for victimization by friends and by other peers. In regard to the second objective, two - not necessarily mutual exclusive - hypotheses were tested. The Common Risk Factors Hypothesis postulated that victimization by friends and by other peers share common personal and familial risk factors. Alternatively, the Mutual Influence Hypothesis proposed that victimization within one relationship context may increase the risk of being victimized in the other relationship context. These hypotheses were tested with a sample of 878 adolescents (Mage = 15.08 years, range 14.50-15.75; 52% female) assessed in Grades 8 and 9. Structural equation modeling revealed moderate and weak one-year stability for victimization by friends and by other peers, respectively. No common risk factors emerged, but victimization within one relationship context increased the risk of victimization in the other relationship context one year later. These results are in line with the mutual influence hypothesis and provide evidence of a cross-context transfer of victimization in adolescence.

School Bullying in Compulsory and Advanced Secondary Education. Determining Factors in its Intervention

Background: School bullying is a problem that has been considered from various different perspectives in the academic literature. The present work seeks to increase knowledge on the influence of the climate established at the school in order to determine if contextual factors can be used as a reference from which to plan interventions directed towards prevention. Methods: An ad hoc validated questionnaire was administered to 554 pupils in secondary education (compulsory and A Level) who were aged between 12 and 18 years. Results: Descriptive bivariate analysis showed the quality of the relationship established by the individual with their environment to be a key indicator of their susceptibility to school bullying. In the same way, acceptance in school is a protective factor against victimization. Conclusions: The most effective interventions are those which focus on the center of education and involve all of the educational community, taking a transversal approach that transforms the cultural system within which students develop.

School mobility during childhood predicts psychotic symptoms in late adolescence

BACKGROUND

Recently, school mobility was identified as a risk factor for psychotic symptoms in early adolescence. The extent to which this risk continues into late adolescence and the trajectories via which this risk manifests remain unexplored.

METHODS

Psychotic symptoms in 4,720 adolescents aged 18 were ascertained by trained psychologists using the Psychosis-Like Symptoms Interview. Mothers reported on sociodemographic factors (i.e., family adversity, ethnicity and urbanicity) from pregnancy to 4 years; child's involvement in bullying at age 6-7 years; residential mobility at 11 years and school mobility at 11-12 years. Young people reported on their friendships at 8 years, and antisocial behaviour and cannabis use at 15 years.

RESULTS

School mobility across childhood significantly predicted psychotic symptoms at 18 years (adjusted odds ratio = 2.15; 95% confidence intervals = 1.06, 4.40). Within path analysis, school mobility (β = .183, p = .035), involvement in bullying (β = .133, p = .013), antisocial behaviour (β = .052, p = .004), cannabis use (β = .254, p = .020) and female sex (β = .420, p < .001) significantly predicted psychotic symptoms. Residential mobility (β = .375, p < .001), involvement in bullying (β = .120, p = .022) and poor friendships (β = .038, p = .014) significantly predicted school mobility. Residential mobility indirectly increased the risk of psychotic symptoms via school mobility (β = .069, p = .041).

CONCLUSIONS

Children who move schools often are more likely to have experienced peer problems. School mobility, in turn, appears to be a robust marker for psychotic symptoms in late adolescence. Clinicians and teachers should consider school mobility as an important risk indicator for both peer problems and psychopathology.

Bullying involvement of Korean children in Germany and in Korea

This study compared bullying involvement of Korean or Korean-German children living in Germany with children in Korea, and examined children’s perceptions of school environment associated with bullying involvement of the children. This study included 105 Korean or Korean-German children living in the Bayern State of Germany as the study sample and 95 Korean children in Gyeongnam Province of Korea as the control group. Korean children in Germany were significantly less likely to be exposed to and less likely to be engaged in bullying behaviors than those in Korea, except relational bullying. Overall 21.0% of Korean or Korean-German children were being bullied and 18.1% of children were bullying peers in Germany, whereas 33.7% of children were exposed to being bullied and 35.8% of children were involved in bullying peers in Korea. Children’s perceptions of school environment as being more favorable were significantly associated with decreased bullying involvement of children. Policy implications were suggested based on the findings.

Development of the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale-Revised (MPVS-R) and the Multidimensional Peer Bullying Scale (MPVS-RB)

Peer victimization is a frequent occurrence for many adolescents; however, some of the psychometric properties of self-report scales assessing these experiences remain unclear. Furthermore, with an increase in access to technology, electronic aggression should also be considered. The authors examined the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS; Mynard & Joseph, 2000), and developed versions to include the assessment of electronic aggression according to whether the adolescent was the target or perpetrator of peer victimization. A total of 371 (191 girls and 180 boys; Mage = 13 years 4 months, SDage = 1 year 2 months) adolescents in the United Kingdom completed the MPVS including five newly developed items assessing electronic aggression, a version of the MPVS designed to assess victimization perpetration, and a measure of self-esteem. Confirmatory factor analyses yielded a five-factor structure comprising: Physical, social manipulation, verbal, attacks on property, and electronic for both scales. Convergent validity was established through negative associations between the victimization scales and self-esteem. Sex differences also emerged. One revised scale and one new scale are subsequently proposed: The MPVS-Revised and the Multidimensional Peer Bullying Scale.

Individual and social network predictors of physical bullying: a longitudinal study of Taiwanese early adolescents

This study followed 125 7th-grade students in Taiwan for the entire school year and analyzed the individual and social network factors predicting their involvement in physical bullying over 5 waves of data. Using self-reports of bullying experiences, 20 classroom-level networks of bullying and friendship were constructed for 4 classrooms and 5 temporal points, from which 4 individual-level network measures were calculated. They included bully and victim centrality, popularity, and embeddedness in friendship networks. A series of mixed models for repeated measures were constructed to predict students' bully and victim centrality in bullying network at time t + 1. Compared to girls, boys were more likely to be both the bullies and victims. Lower self-esteem and higher family economic status contributed to victim centrality. Having parents married and living together predicted lower bully centrality. Higher educational level of parents predicted lower victim and bully centrality. Regarding the social network factors, students' bully centrality at t positively predicted their bully centrality at t + 1, whereas victim centrality predicted their subsequent victim centrality. Interaction effects between friendship network and bullying network were observed. Embeddedness in friendship network reduced victim centrality at t + 1 except for those students with low victim centrality at t. For those with high victim centrality at t, popularity increased their risk of physical victimization over time. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Coping with bullying: What answers does children’s literature provide?

Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic tool for helping children deal with stressful events. Bullying and peer victimization is commonly experienced by children and has been associated with psychosocial maladjustment. However, research suggests that particular coping strategies may be more or less effective. As stories are one avenue through which children learn about and explore possible coping strategies, this study examined 73 storybooks aimed at children ages 4–11 for bullying type (verbal, physical, and relational), settings in which the bullying occurred and coping strategies used by fictional victims. Assessed coping strategies included nine categories and 26 specific strategies. Results indicated that the most commonly used coping strategy categories included both adaptive ( prosocial response, advice seeking, distancing) and maladaptive ( revenge-seeking) categories. The most frequently promoted coping strategies were bystander-intervention (16%), befriend-the-bully (15%), trick-the-bully (11%), scare-the bully-(10%), and verbal-confrontation (10%). Differences in the strategies presented across reading level of the books were also found. Results are discussed in light of current research on coping and bullying, and implications for clinicians and school staff conducting bibliotherapy to address bullying.

‘Friends and grades’: Peer preference and attachment predict academic success among Naskapi youth

The primary findings of this study are preliminary support for the promotive effects of positive peer relations in an educational context with a specific group of First Nations adolescents. Eighty-one students from grades 6–11 who attended the sole school in the Naskapi community of Kawawachikamach in northern Québec, representing virtually all of the youths in the community, completed questionnaires regarding peer preferences, self-report peer and parental attachment, and affiliation with mainstream White and Native culture. Based on a regression analysis with full information maximum likelihood (FIML) analyses to handle missing data, only the measures of peer preference and self-report attachment to peers were found to predict school grades. These findings are inconsistent with the oppositional hypothesis that has been forwarded with other minority youths from historically oppressed communities, but rather are evidence for the beneficial effects of ‘peer power’ in this community.

The effects of autonomy support versus psychological control and work engagement versus academic burnout on adolescents’ use of avoidance strategies

This study examines the relationships among Taiwanese ninth graders’ perceptions of autonomy support versus psychological control in the classroom context, work engagement versus academic burnout, and their avoidance of help seeking as well as self-handicapping behaviors. Four hundred and thirty-five ninth-grade Taiwanese students completed a self-reported survey assessing these variables. Results of hierarchical regressions indicated that in terms of environmental predictors, teachers’ autonomy support negatively predicted both help avoidance and self-handicapping, whereas teachers’ psychological control positively predicted self-handicapping only. As for the predicting effects of individual factors, students’ dedication negatively predicted both avoidance of help seeking and self-handicapping. By contrast, the lack of efficacy positively predicted help avoidance, whereas cynicism positively predicted self-handicapping. Further, results of MANCOVA revealed that even after controlling for the effects of teachers’ autonomy support and psychological control, burnout students were significantly more likely to avoid seeking academic help and self-handicap than were engaged students.

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.

Mediation of school bonding and peer norms on the reciprocal effects of friend victimization and problem behavior

Peer victimization is a pervasive problem among children and associated with numerous psychological and behavioural problems for all participants. Research is needed to understand the complex relations between factors that increase risk of victimization and its consequences. We used autoregressive cross-lagged modelling with self-report data to examine the longitudinal reciprocal effects of victimization by friends with problem behaviour, as well as the mediating effects of school bonding and peer norms. Participants were 316 4th grade students in socioeconomically disadvantaged elementary schools in California, USA, most of whom were Latino/a American (89.9%). Results indicated a causal path from peer victimization by friends in 4th grade to problem behaviour in 5th grade, which was fully mediated by school bonding and peer norms for academics in 5th grade. These results confirm the need to monitor and respond to peer victimization by friends in any setting. Moreover, results demonstrate the importance of creating opportunities to positively engage students in school activities that teach or ensure positive social interactions and exposure to peers that are engaged in normative social and academic behaviours.

Rates of cyber victimization and bullying among male Australian primary and high school students

The prevalence and nature of electronic forms of bullying (cyberbullying) was investigated among 1,530 primary and secondary school aged male students (Years 6 to 12; 9-18 years, chronologically) in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia. Findings revealed that victimization via the Internet was the most common form of cyberbullying with 11.5 percent of students reporting at least one experience of it during the school year. A significant main effect was found, with junior secondary school students (Years 8 to 10) the most likely to be victimized in this manner. With regard to the cyberbullying of others, the Internet was again the most commonly employed method, with 8.5 percent of students reporting using it. A main effect was evident between year levels for all four forms of cyberbullying investigated. The transmission of electronic images was the least reported form of cyberbullying experienced (4.8 percent) and the least frequently perpetrated form of cyberbullying (3.7 percent), which is less than the only other study conducted reporting such data. These findings are discussed in the light of the relatively limited cyberbullying research undertaken to date.

Influence of psychological and social factors on bystanders’ roles in school bullying among Korean-American students in the United States

This study investigated the associations of psychological and social variables with the likelihood of exhibiting three different behaviors as a bystander in a bullying situation. The sample comprised 238 Korean-American and Korean students, from the 3rd to 12th grades, studying in the USA. Students receiving classmate support showed a lower probability of exhibiting outsider behaviors in a bullying situation as compared to non-involvers, whereas those receiving teacher support showed less likelihood of exhibiting assistant, outsider, and defender behaviors as compared to non-involvers. Furthermore, students showing higher responsibility exhibited a lower probability of being a defender group as compared to the non-involvers, while those showing higher empathy demonstrated a greater probability of being in the defender group over non-involvers. The current study discusses the implications for bullying preventive interventions in school settings.

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.

Cyberbullying in Turkish middle schools: An exploratory study

This study explored Turkish students' experience of cyberbullying and their use of social networking tools. A total of 756 7th-grade students participated from eight different middle schools in Istanbul, the largest city of Turkey. A 15-item questionnaire was used in a classroom environment to collect data. Results revealed that male students were more involved in cyberbullying than female students. Students used instant messaging programs in cyberbullying, and bullying victims did not communicate with adults when they were exposed to harassment. The majority of students did not know effective safety strategies for use in cyberspace. Those who were themselves cyberbullied tended to engage in cyberbullying. The prevalence of cyberbullying in Turkish middle schools suggests that schools should adopt appropriate prevention strategies.