Adolescents' involvement in cyber bullying and perceptions of school: the importance of perceived peer acceptance for female adolescents

Young people are spending increasing amounts of time using digital technology and, as such, are at great risk of being involved in cyber bullying as a victim, bully, or bully/victim. Despite cyber bullying typically occurring outside the school environment, the impact of being involved in cyber bullying is likely to spill over to school. Fully 285 11- to 15-year-olds (125 male and 160 female, M age = 12.19 years, SD = 1.03) completed measures of cyber bullying involvement, self-esteem, trust, perceived peer acceptance, and perceptions of the value of learning and the importance of school. For young women, involvement in cyber bullying as a victim, bully, or bully/victim negatively predicted perceptions of learning and school, and perceived peer acceptance mediated this relationship. The results indicated that involvement in cyber bullying negatively predicted perceived peer acceptance which, in turn, positively predicted perceptions of learning and school. For young men, fulfilling the bully/victim role negatively predicted perceptions of learning and school. Consequently, for young women in particular, involvement in cyber bullying spills over to impact perceptions of learning. The findings of the current study highlight how stressors external to the school environment can adversely impact young women's perceptions of school and also have implications for the development of interventions designed to ameliorate the effects of cyber bullying

Il ruolo dell’ansia di tratto nella rappresentazione mentale di un’importante scelta di vita reale

La decisione viene vista come il risultato di una costruzione mentale determinata dal modo in cui ci si rappresenta il dilemma decisionale e si elaborano le informazioni che caratterizzano le diverse opzioni. La percezione o l'interpretazione della situazione come una minaccia può influire sulla rappresentazione del problema. L'ansia di tratto comporta alcuni biases valutativi, come un elevata percezione della minaccia, e una ridotta percezione del controllo. A centosette neo-diplomati che si erano recati all'Università di Salerno per chiedere informazioni inerenti la scelta del corso di laurea a cui iscriversi, è stato somministrato l'Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS). A partire dall'ipotesi della multidimensionalità dell'ansia, abbiamo esplorato l'eventuale associazione esistente tra l'ansia di tratto, il grado di minaccia percepito e la rappresentazione immaginativa e verbale del problema decisionale mediante il metodo statistico dell'analisi delle corrispondenze multipleimmaginativa e verbale del problema decisionale mediante il metodo statistico della Analisi delle Corrispiondeze Multipl

Il ruolo dell'ansia di tratto nella rappresentazione mentale di un'importante scelta di vita reale

The role of trait anxiety in a mental representation of important real-life decision. The decision is defined as the output of a mental construction resulting from the way which decision dilemma and information that characterizes different alternatives could be represented. The perception and interpretation of some situations as “threat” could affect the representation of the problem. Trait anxiety is associated with several appraisal biases, including heightened perception of threat and reduced perceptions of personal control. The Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales (EMAS) was administered to 107 high school graduates about to enrol at the University of Salerno, asking information on choices for future degree courses. Starting from the hypotheses of the multidimensionality of anxiety, we looked at the association that could exist between trait anxiety, the perception of threat and the imaginative and verbal representations of the decision problem. KEYWORDS: anxiety, decision making, emotion, mental imager