Perceived Teacher Responses to Bullying Influence Students' Social Cognitions

Teachers’ responses to bullying incidents are key in bullying intervention at school. Scholars have suggested that teacher responses can predict student cognitions that are associated with their bullying behaviors. However, little is known about whether and how teacher responses affect these cognitions. Therefore, the current study investigated the effects of four immediate teacher responses on four bullying-related student cognitions, using an experimental vignette design. Additionally, it was examined whether students’ own participant role behaviors in actual bullying moderated these effects. The investigated teacher responses were non-response, comforting the victim, correcting the bully, and a combination of comforting the victim and correcting the bully. The investigated student cognitions were perceived teacher attitudes toward bullying, perceived teacher moral disengagement regarding bullying, student willingness to report bullying to the teacher and student expectations regarding bullying participant role behaviors in the classroom. Fourth-to-sixth grade students (N = 910; 47% boys; Mage = 11.04 years, SD = 0.91) read a vignette describing a hypothetical teacher’s response to a same bullying incident, following random assignment to one of eight conditions (i.e., four teacher responses × two genders of bully and victim in the vignette). Afterward, students completed questionnaires about their social cognitions and manipulation checks. ANOVA demonstrated that students perceived stronger teacher anti-bullying attitudes and less teacher moral disengagement when the hypothetical teacher displayed an active response. These effects were even stronger when the teacher corrected the bully compared to when only the victim was comforted. Further, students were more willing to report bullying when the teacher corrected the bully than when the teacher only comforted the victim. Finally, students expected less pro-bullying behaviors, more defending and less victimization in the vignette’s classroom following active teacher response compared to non-response. The effects of teacher responses on student cognitions were not moderated by students’ own participant roles in bullying. Taken together, these findings emphasize the importance of active teacher responses to bullying, and especially, responses that clearly show that bullying is not tolerated. Teachers are encouraged to be aware that students can deduce beliefs from teacher responses which can, in turn, affect bullying processes in the classroom

Revealing the Transactional Associations among Teacher-Child Relationships, Peer Rejection and Peer Victimization in Early Adolescence

Peer victimization is a persistent problem in early adolescents’ peer relationships that is related to various difficulties in the short and long run. Previous studies have investigated whether relationships with peers and teachers predict victimization, but to date, few studies have examined the simultaneous contribution of both classroom-based relationships to victimization over time. Therefore, this study investigated how peer rejection and teacher-child relationships uniquely predict peer victimization over the course of one school year in upper elementary school. The transactional associations among teacher-child relationships, peer rejection, and relational and physical victimization were examined in a sample of 692 children (36 classes; Mage = 10.28; range: 7.92-13.14; 48.4% female). Teacher-child relationship quality and peer victimization were measured by student self-report, peer rejection by peer-report. Cross-lagged analyses showed that rejection predicted victimization from wave 1 to wave 2. In turn, more victimization predicted more rejection throughout the whole school year. More supportive teacher-child relationships predicted less victimization. Additionally, more victimization (wave 1) predicted less supportive relationships with teachers (wave 2). Peer rejection and teacher-child relationships were found to have unique, additive effects on victimization in early adolescence over time. Therefore, to effectively intervene in victimization processes, relationships with both peers and teachers need to be considered.status: Published onlin

Do Classroom Relationships Moderate the Association Between Peer Defending in School Bullying and Social-Emotional Adjustment?

Peer defending has been shown to protect bullied peers from further victimization and so-cial-emotional problems. However, research on the effects of defending students demonstrated positive and negative social-emotional adjustment. To explain these mixed findings, researchers have suggested that associations between defending and social-emotional adjustment may be buffered by protective factors (i.e., defender protection hypothesis) or exacerbated by vulnerability factors (i.e., defender vulnerability hypothesis). In line with these hypotheses, the current study aimed to investigate whether relationships with teachers and peers moderate the association be-tween defending and social-emotional adjustment, i.e., depressive symptoms and self-esteem. This three-wave longitudinal study examined the association between peer-nominated defending, and later self-reported depressive symptoms and self-esteem in 848 fourth-to-sixth graders (53% girls; Mage = 10.61 years, SD = 0.90 at Wave 1). Peer-nominated positive and negative teacher-student relationships (closeness, conflict) and peer relationships (acceptance, rejection) were used. Clustered multiple linear regression analyses demonstrated that defending behavior did not predict later depressive symptoms or self-esteem. Contrary to our expectations, teacher-student closeness, peer acceptance and their combination did not play a protective role in the association between de-fending and social-emotional adjustment. In addition, teacher-student conflict, peer rejection and their combination did not put defending students at risk for social-emotional maladjustment. Thus, relationships with teachers and peers did not moderate the association between defending and later depressive symptoms and self-esteem

Predicting Peer Victimization in Secondary Education: A Gene-by-Environment Interaction Study

status: publishe