Navigating the Healthy Context Paradox: Identifying Classroom Characteristics that Improve the Psychological Adjustment of Bullying Victims

The healthy context paradox-an unexpected pattern in which victims' psychological adjustment worsens as the overall level of victimization in a classroom or school declines-implies that reducing the frequency of bullying or victimization incidents does not do enough to help victims of bullying. In light of this finding, it is imperative to identify protective factors that alleviate victimization-related distress in the peer ecology. The current study examines classroom-level peer victimization and peer-defending behaviors as moderators of the association between individual-level victimization and psychological adjustment. These classroom-level moderators were tested with a sample of 1373 adolescents (40% girls,M-age: 14 years) from 54 classrooms in South Korean middle schools. Consistent with past findings documenting the healthy context paradox, the results of multilevel modeling indicated that victimized youth experienced a lower level of depressive symptoms in classrooms where victimization was more common. Most importantly, bullied students reported fewer depressive symptoms, on average, in classrooms with relatively high levels of bully-oriented (i.e., confronting the bully), rather than victim-oriented (i.e., comforting the victim), defending behavior. These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of peers' defending behaviors toward bullied adolescents and have significant implications for anti-bullying interventions

Muistihoitajat kehittämässä muistisairaan hoitoa Siun sotessa

Ikääntyvän väestön ja muistisairaiden määrän lisääntymisen myötä muistisairauksien ennaltaehkäisy, hoito ja kuntoutus ovat ajankohtaisia kehittämiskohteita. Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli vuoden 2017 alusta aloittaneen Siun soten alueen yli 65-vuotiaiden muistisairaiden hoidon kehittäminen. Opinnäytetyön tehtävänä oli selvittää, miten muistihoitajat toteuttavat muistisairauksien ennaltaehkäisyä, hoitoa ja kuntoutusta kunnissa ennen Siun soten toiminnan aloittamista. Tehtävänä oli kuvata muistihoitajatoiminnan nykytilaa ja tuottaa prosessikuvaus muistisairaan hoidon toteuttamisesta muistihoitajan työn näkökulmasta jatkokehittämisen pohjaksi Siun sotessa. Opinnäytetyö toteutettiin osallistavana tutkimuksellisena kehittämistoimintana. Siun soten alueen muistihoitajat olivat aktiivisesti osallisina kehittämisprosessissa. Muistihoitajille järjestettiin kolme verkostopäivää, joissa ryhmätyömenetelmin hahmotettiin ja kehitettiin muistihoitajien työtä. Aineistoa kerättiin myös Webropol-verkkokyselyllä, ja kerättyä aineistoa analysoitiin sisällönanalyysillä. Opinnäytetyön tuotoksina kuvattiin muistihoitajan tehtävänkuva sekä prosessikuvaus muistisairaan hoidosta. Prosessikuvausta voidaan hyödyntää jatkokehittämisen pohjana Siun sotessa sekä muistihoitajien työn perehdytyksen välineenä. Opinnäytetyö tuotti arvokasta tietoa muistisairaanhoidon nykytilasta ja kehittämistarpeista sekä henkilöstön koulutustarpeista. Jatkokehittämisaiheiksi nousivat asiakasnäkökulman vahvistaminen sekä muistisairauksien ennaltaehkäisy ja kuntoutus.The aging population and the increasing number of people with memory disorders set the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of memory disorders as current development targets. The aim of this thesis was to develop the treatment of people over the age of 65 with memory disorders in the municipalities in the area of Siun sote organisation that started at the beginning of 2017. The purpose of the thesis was to explore how memory nurses implement the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of memory disorders. The aim was to describe the present state of memory nursing and to produce a process description of the realization of memory nursing from the perspective of memory nurses to be used as a basis for further development in Siun sote. The thesis was carried out as a participatory research and development activity. Memory nurses participated actively in the development process. They were given three networking days, where they pondered and developed the work through group work. Material was also collected through a Webropol online survey and the data was analysed using content analysis. The job description of a memory nurse and the process description of memory nursing were described as the output of the thesis. The process description can be used in further development in Siun sote and as material in the orientation of memory nurses. The thesis produced valuable information and development needs on memory nursing. The reinforcement of client perspective together with the prevention and rehabilitation of memory disorders emerged as topics for further development

Bullying in School and Online Contexts: Social Dominance, Bystander Compliance, and Emotional Pain of Victims

This chapter examines the contextual conditions that give rise to bullying, the motives underlying bullying behaviors, the plight of victims, and the role of bystanders. First, it emphasizes the critical role of considering environmental features when understanding the motivation behind bullying. Second, the chapter accounts for bystander compliance and explains how the lack of public objection to bullying helps shape misperceptions of social norms that maintain it. Bullying does not just involve an exchange between perpetrator and victim; rather, a defining feature of bullying is that it occurs in front of an audience. In light of the strong associations between victimization, attributions of self‐blame, and subsequent distress, it is critical to acknowledge how various environmental conditions of a victim's experience may give rise to different interpretations of why they were targeted. Diversity of the student body is another important feature of school environments that might help curb bullying behavior

You’ve got a friend(ly school): Can school prosocial norms and friends similarly protect victims from distress?

Testing the potential protective effects of school-level prosocial norms and having friends on peer victimization-related distress, this study examined whether one protective factor is particularly important in the absence of the other. An ethnically diverse sample (n=5,991) from 26 middle schools reported on peer prosocial behavior, social anxiety, loneliness, and perceived school safety; peer nominations assessed victimization and friends. Multilevel analyses revealed that 6th grade friendless victims felt significantly less anxious, lonely, and unsafe a year later in schools characterized by stronger peer prosocial norms (e.g., helping others). Additionally, victims in less prosocial schools experienced less socially anxiety if they had at least one friend. The findings suggest that attending a school characterized by prosocial peer norms can compensate for high social risk (victimized and friendless) following the transition to middle school, and having friends is important for bullied youth in less prosocial school contexts. These results highlight the importance of simultaneously studying relational and school-level protective factors; implications for anti-bullying interventions are discussed

The Effects of School-Level Victimization on Self-Blame: Evidence for Contextualized Social Cognitions

The current study examined school-level victimization as a moderator of associations between peer victimization and changes in two types of self-blaming attributions (characterological and behavioral) across the first year in middle school. These associations were tested in a large sample (N=5,991) of ethnically diverse adolescents from Fall to Spring of the sixth grade year across 26 schools. Consistent with hypotheses, the results of multilevel modeling indicate that victimized youth showed greater increases in characterological self-blaming attributions (e.g., ‘my fault and cannot change it’) in schools where victimization was less common. In contrast, victimization was associated with increases in behavioral self-blame (e.g., ‘I should have been more careful’) for bullied students in schools with relatively higher levels of victimization. Underscoring the psychological consequences of person-context mismatch, the results suggest that when schools manage to decrease bullying, the few who remain victimized need additional support to prevent more maladaptive forms of self-blame

Two sides of social integration: Effects of exposure and friendships on second- and third-generation immigrant as well as majority youth's intergroup attitudes

To gain insights into social integration of second- and third-generation immigrant youth in Dutch secondary schools, we examined the two sides: immigrant youth's attitudes toward the societal majority and the societal majority youth's attitudes toward immigrants, while taking into account immigrant youth's diverse cultural backgrounds. The sample included Dutch-born Turkish (n = 187), Moroccan (n = 188), and Surinamese (n = 164) adolescents as well as societal majority youth (n = 2,141) across 169 classrooms in 92 Dutch secondary schools. School-based exposure to, and friendships with relevant out-group classmates were examined separately as predictors of out-group attitudes. Also, the mediational function of out-group friendships, i.e., immigrant respectively societal majority, on the association between exposure and attitudes was tested. The results varied between immigrant and societal majority youth, as well as across the cultural groups. Overall, out-group exposure was found to benefit all immigrant adolescents’ attitudes toward the societal majority. For societal majority adolescents, however, the association between exposure, friendships and attitudes differed based on the relevant out-group. This study highlights the nuances between immigrant groups and between immigrant and societal majority groups’ attitudes toward one another

The Effects of School-Level Victimization on Self-Blame: Evidence for Contextualized Social Cognitions

The current study examined school-level victimization as a moderator of associations between peer victimization and changes in two types of self-blaming attributions (characterological and behavioral) across the first year in middle school. These associations were tested in a large sample (N=5,991) of ethnically diverse adolescents from Fall to Spring of the sixth grade year across 26 schools. Consistent with hypotheses, the results of multilevel modeling indicate that victimized youth showed greater increases in characterological self-blaming attributions (e.g., ‘my fault and cannot change it’) in schools where victimization was less common. In contrast, victimization was associated with increases in behavioral self-blame (e.g., ‘I should have been more careful’) for bullied students in schools with relatively higher levels of victimization. Underscoring the psychological consequences of person-context mismatch, the results suggest that when schools manage to decrease bullying, the few who remain victimized need additional support to prevent more maladaptive forms of self-blame

Depressive symptoms, friend distress, and self-blame: Risk factors for adolescent peer victimization

Past research indicates that depressed adolescents experience increased risk for peer victimization. Less is known about the conditions under which depressive symptoms predict social vulnerability and the mechanism underlying such links. The current study considers a) characterological self-blaming attributions as a social cognitive mechanism accounting for links between depressive symptoms and victimization across the first two years of middle school and b) the potential moderating role of friends’ level of depressive symptoms. Relying on an ethnically diverse sample of 5,374 adolescents, multilevel moderated mediation analyses indicated that maladaptive attributions accounted for links between 6th grade depressive symptoms and increases in 7th grade victimization. Moreover, this mediational pathway was strongest for students whose friends also experienced heightened depressive symptoms at the beginning of middle school. These results highlight the roles of both intra- and inter-personal risk factors in predicting social cognitive biases and future victimization risk during the middle school years

Dynamic Changes in Peer Victimization and Adjustment across Middle School: Does Friends’ Victimization Alleviate Distress?

Although some adolescents are chronically bullied throughout middle school, others may only experience peer victimization temporarily. This study examined the effects of time-invariant (average level) and time-varying (year-to-year) victimization experiences across middle school on adolescents' depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, and self-blame. A key question was whether friends’ victimization buffered students from their victimization-related distress. The diverse sample (n=5,991) was surveyed four times between 6th and 8th grade. Three-level multilevel models revealed both time-invariant and time-varying effects of victimization on adjustment, but these maladaptive associations were attenuated when adolescents’ friends experienced more victimization across middle school. The results suggest that even temporarily victimized youth may have unmet mental health needs, and sharing social plight with friends can protect victims