Problem behaviours, traditional bullying and cyberbullying among adolescents: Longitudinal analyses

Problem Behaviour Theory suggests that young people\u27s problem behaviours tend to cluster. This study examined the relationship between traditional bullying, cyberbullying and engagement in problem behaviours using longitudinal data from approximately 1500 students. Levels of traditional victimisation and perpetration at the beginning of secondary school (grade 8, age 12) predicted levels of engagement in problem behaviours at the end of grade 9 (age 14). Levels of victimisation and perpetration were found to moderate each other\u27s associations with engagement in problem behaviours. Cyberbullying did not represent an independent risk factor over and above levels of traditional victimisation and perpetration for higher levels of engagement in problem behaviours. The findings suggest that to reduce the clustering of cyberbullying behaviours with other problem behaviours, it may be necessary to focus interventions on traditional bullying, specifically direct bullying

Bullying in school and cyberspace: Associations with depressive symptoms in Swiss and Australian adolescents

Background Cyber-bullying (i.e., bullying via electronic means) has emerged as a new form of bullying that presents unique challenges to those victimised. Recent studies have demonstrated that there is a significant conceptual and practical overlap between both types of bullying such that most young people who are cyber-bullied also tend to be bullied by more traditional methods. Despite the overlap between traditional and cyber forms of bullying, it remains unclear if being a victim of cyber-bullying has the same negative consequences as being a victim of traditional bullying. Method The current study investigated associations between cyber versus traditional bullying and depressive symptoms in 374 and 1320 students from Switzerland and Australia respectively (52% female; Age: M = 13.8, SD = 1.0). All participants completed a bullying questionnaire (assessing perpetration and victimisation of traditional and cyber forms of bullying behaviour) in addition to scales on depressive symptoms. Results Across both samples, traditional victims and bully-victims reported more depressive symptoms than bullies and non-involved children. Importantly, victims of cyber-bullying reported significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms, even when controlling for the involvement in traditional bullying/victimisation. Conclusions Overall, cyber-victimisation emerged as an additional risk factor for depressive symptoms in adolescents involved in bullying

Developmental trajectories of adolescent victimization: predictors and outcomes

Chronic victimization negatively affects mental health, making it crucial to understand the key predictive social health (e.g., loneliness, isolation) factors. Evidence suggests that the effects of victimization are worse over the transition from primary to secondary school. Longitudinal data from 1810 students transitioning were used to identify victimization trajectory groups, classified as low increasing, low stable, medium stable, and not bullied. Adolescents with poorer social health were more likely to be in the increasing and stable victimized group than in the not bullied group. Students in the low increasing victimized group had poorer mental health outcomes than those in the stable and not bullied groups. The results of this study have important implications for the type and timing of school-based interventions aimed at reducing victimization and the harms caused by long-term exposure

Internalising symptoms: An antecedent or precedent in adolescent peer victimisation?

The transition period from primary to secondary school is a critical time in adolescent development. The high prevalence of adolescent mental health problems makes understanding the causal pathways between peer victimisation and internalising symptoms an important priority during this time. This article utilises data collected from self-completion questionnaires four times over 3 years from 3,459 students’ aged 11–14 to examine directional relationships among adolescents as they transition from primary to secondary school, and investigates gender differences in these associations. The findings suggest depression in males is both a precedent and antecedent for victimisation over the transition period, whereas for females depression is an antecedent only. Anxiety is a both a precedent and antecedent for victimisation for males and females. To maintain emotional wellbeing and prevent peer victimisation, interventions prior to and during this transition period are critical, especially among adolescents experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety

Outcome evaluation of the school drug education project: final report presented to the school drug education and road aware project

In 2002, Curtin University\u27s Western Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research provided a report which explored the feasibility of a range of options to evaluate the impact of the School Drug Education Project (SDEP) on students\u27 drug use, perceptions of drug-related harm and attitudes towards drug use. Given the difficulties of achieving a prospective design, this proposal recommended comparing retrospective measures of SDEP participation, level of SDEP training and dose of SDEP implementation with Years 8-12 student drug-related outcome data collected from four large Western Australian studies conducted somewhat concurrently with the School Drug Education Project. It was hypothesised that if the School Drug Education Project has been effective, students exposed to more of the Project\u27s components would have lower drug use, more favourable perceptions of drug-related harm and drug-related attitudes than those who have received less or none. This report describes our research methods, results, discussion and recommendations from the findings for this impact evaluation of the School Drug Education Project. The Years 8-12 student drug-related data were sourced from four research projects I studies. These studies were the Smoking Cessation for Youth Project (SCYP) which involved over 4,000 Years 9-12 students from metropolitan government schools; the School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP), which involved 2,300 Years 8-10 students from government metropolitan schools; the 1999 and the 2002 Australian Student Survey of Alcohol and Drugs (ASSAD 1999 and ASSAD 2002) each with over 3,500 Years 8 -12 students from country and metropolitan, government and non-government schools. These studies had collected data since the commencement of the School Drug Education Project and provided a number of potential measures of the effectiveness of this Project

Adolescent Bully-victims: Social health and the transition to secondary school

This study aimed to investigate the causal pathways and factors associated with being involved in bullying behaviour as a bully-victim using longitudinal data from students aged 11-14 years over the transition time from primary to secondary school. Examination of bully-victim pathways suggest a critical time to intervene is prior to transition from the end of primary school to the beginning of secondary school to prevent and reduce the harm from bullying. Negative outcome expectancies from bullying perpetration were a significant predictor of being a bully-victim at the end of the first year of secondary school. The findings show an association between peer support, connectedness to school, pro-victim attitudes, outcome expectancies and level of bullying involvement. Implications for intervention programs are discussed

Positive veteran teachers: Who are they, and where are they to be found?

Teacher career trajectory studies have identified a small group of veteran teachers who remain positive and committed to teaching, while others become disenchanted or disengaged. These, and related studies suggest key characteristics of positive veteran teachers revolve around a strong sense of agency and professional identity including: 1) a continuing desire to experiment and embrace challenges; 2) high levels of personal comfort in their teaching roles; and 3) a willingness to take on leadership roles across a range of capacities and contexts, and in turn be affirmed in these roles. While studies describe these characteristics, there has been little attempt utilise them as the basis for constructs in the formal identification of these teachers, and in turn examine where these teachers are to be found in education systems. This article reports on a study in Australia which sought to utilise the characteristics to identify positive veteran teachers within a larger cohort, and examine demographic information surrounding them. Reported demographics include gender, location (city / country), age and school type (primary / secondary / K-12). The ability to identify these teachers and where they are to be found may help educational authorities understand and promote conditions in which more veteran teachers are able to sustain their passion and commitment to the job

National Safe Schools Framework: Policy and Practice to Reduce Bullying in Australian Schools

In 2003 Australia was one of the first countries to develop an integrated national policy, called the National Safe Schools Framework (NSSF), for the prevention and management of violence, bullying, and other aggressive behaviors. The effectiveness of this framework has not yet been formally evaluated. Cross-sectional data collected in 2007 from 7,418 students aged 9 to 14 years old and 453 teachers from 106 representative Australian schools were analyzed to determine teachers’ perceptions about the extent of implementation of the NSSF, teachers’ capacity to address student bullying, and students’ reports of bullying in their school, 4 years following the framework’s dissemination. While methodological issues limit the findings, schools appear not to have widely implemented the recommended safe school practices, teachers appear to need more training to address bullying, especially covert bullying, and bullying prevalence among students seems relatively unchanged compared to Australian data collected 4 years prior to the launch of the NSSF