Telling adults about one's plight as a victim of bullying: Student- and context-related factors predicting disclosure

We examined student‐ and context‐related factors related to whether bullied students tell adults about their plight at school or at home. The sample included 1,266 students in primary (Grades 4–6) and lower secondary (Grades 8–9) schools, who had answered an online questionnaire at two measurement points about 5 months apart and were identified as victims of bullying on the basis of the latter. Only 55.4% of the bullied students had told their situation to someone, and much fewer had told an adult. Telling an adult at home was more common (34.0%) than telling a teacher (20.6%) or some other adult at school (12.7%). In a longitudinal structural equation model (SEM), factors related to increased likelihood of telling an adult were female gender, lower grade level, the chronicity of victimization, perceived negative teacher attitude towards bullying (teacher not tolerating bullying), and perceived peer support for victims (classmates’ tendency to defend students who are victimized).</p

Narrative Skills Predict Peer Adjustment across Elementary School Years

The importance of peer adjustment in middle childhood coincides with developing social cognitive and discursive skills that include the ability to make personal narrative accounts. Authoring personal stories promotes attention to the sequence of events, the causal connections between events, the moral significance of what has happened, and the motives that drive human action: these skills may be critical for the establishment and maintenance of satisfying peer relationships during elementary school. The present study extended previous research by considering whether narrative skills in written stories about peer interactions predicted peer adjustment. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study, 92 children wrote narratives about peer experiences and completed surveys on measures of peer adjustment for two school years. Cross-lagged panel models indicated that chronological and thematic coherence and reports of moral concerns in narratives in the first year of the study contributed to lower peer disliking in the subsequent academic year. Reports of motives in Year 1 narratives contributed to lower levels of loneliness and peer victimization in Year 2. Writing personal narratives that are coherent and attentive to moral concerns and motives may be especially beneficial for children who have difficulty connecting with peers. We discuss implications for classroom practices

Needs-oriented discharge planning and monitoring for high utilisers of psychiatric services (NODPAM): Design and methods

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Attempts to reduce high utilisation of psychiatric inpatient care by targeting the critical time of hospital discharge have been rare.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This paper presents design and methods of the study "Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Needs-Oriented Discharge Planning and Monitoring for High Utilisers of Psychiatric Services" (NODPAM), a multicentre RCT conducted in five psychiatric hospitals in Germany. Inclusion criteria are receipt of inpatient psychiatric care, adult age, diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorder, defined high utilisation of psychiatric care during two years prior to the current admission, and given informed consent. Consecutive recruitment started in April 2006. Since then, during a period of 18 months, comprehensive outcome data of 490 participants is being collected at baseline and during three follow-up measurement points.</p> <p>The manualised intervention applies principles of needs-led care and focuses on the inpatient-outpatient transition. A trained intervention worker provides two intervention sessions: (a) Discharge planning: Just before discharge with the patient and responsible clinician at the inpatient service; (b) Monitoring: Three months after discharge with the patient and outpatient clinician. A written treatment plan is signed by all participants after each session.</p> <p>Primary endpoints are whether participants in the intervention group will show fewer hospital days and readmissions to hospital. Secondary endpoints are better compliance with aftercare, better clinical outcome and quality of life, as well as cost-effectiveness and cost-utility.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>If a needs-oriented discharge planning and monitoring proves to be successful in this RCT, a tool will be at hand to improve patient outcome and reduce costs via harmonising fragmented mental health service provision.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ISRCTN59603527</p

Estudio de casos: tensiones y desafíos en la elaboración de la normativa escolar en Chile

Resumen La convivencia escolar es un escenario que ha estado en la reflexión y ha sido transversal en las distintas esferas educativas en los últimos años. De hecho, en el año 2011, el Ministerio de Educación estableció la Ley de Violencia Escolar como una forma de diseñar e implementar líneas de acción que propendan a fortalecer la relación entre los miembros de la comunidad educativa contribuyendo con ello a propiciar un ambiente que permita el desarrollo armónico de todos los actores educativos que forman parte del centro escolar. Con referencia a lo anterior, se realizó un estudio de casos de carácter interpretativo el cual consideró una intervención socioeducativa en un centro escolar público con la finalidad de implementar de manera representativa un marco normativo para la convivencia escolar armónica con la participación de todos los agentes educativos, considerando para ello los diversos significados y comportamientos indagados y consensuados, de manera de hacer un aporte al ámbito escolar, contribuyendo por ende al cumplimiento de los objetivos propuestos por el Ministerio de Educación de Chile. Las etapas contempladas en la investigación permitieron ir explorando y sistematizando los aportes de los participantes destacando aquellos acuerdos asociados a los comportamientos evidenciados y que son frecuentes en el centro educativo (disruptivos, psicológico o físico), con el objeto de incorporarlos en la política reguladora de las conductas escolares y conformar con ello un marco conductual que aporte a una convivencia armoniosa en el centro educativo

Understanding Rejection between First-and-Second-Grade Elementary Students through Reasons Expressed by Rejecters

Objective: The aim of this research was to obtain the views of young children regarding their reasons for rejecting a peer. Method: To achieve this goal, we conducted a qualitative study in the context of theory building research using an analysis methodology based on Grounded Theory. The collected information was extracted through semi-structured individual interviews from a sample of 853 children aged 6 from 13 urban public schools in Spain. Results: The children provided 3,009 rejection nominations and 2,934 reasons for disliking the rejected peers. Seven reason categories emerged from the analysis. Four categories refer to behaviors of the rejected children that have a cost for individual peers or peer group such as: direct aggression, disturbance of wellbeing, problematic social and school behaviors and dominance behaviors. A further two categories refer to the identities arising from the preferences and choices of rejected and rejecter children and their peers: personal identity expressed through preferences and disliking, and social identity expressed through outgroup prejudices. The ¿no-behavior or no-choice¿ reasons were covered by one category, unfamiliarity. In addition, three context categories were found indicating the participants (interpersonal¿group), the impact (low¿high), and the subjectivity (subjective¿objective) of the reason. Conclusion: This study provides researchers and practitioners with a comprehensive taxonomy of reasons for rejection that contributes to enrich the theoretical knowledge and improve interventions for preventing and reducing peer rejection.Departamento de Educación y Psicología SocialVersión del edito