195 research outputs found
Children's opinions on effective strategies to cope with bullying: the importance of bullying role and perspective
In order to find out what children would suggest as useful interventions to stop bullying, we designed a questionnaire administered to 311 children (155 boys and 156 girls; mean age = 11 years). Thirty-six items were employed to ask children how effective, in their opinion, retaliation, nonchalance and assertiveness could be in stopping bullying. Items were presented to children from three different perspectives (imagine you are the victim, the bully or a witness). We used peer reports to assess children's role in bullying. Children were grouped into bullies, followers of the bully, defenders of the victims, outsiders, victims and those not involved. The strategy most frequently chosen by all children was to cope with bullying through assertiveness. Bullies considered retaliation effective more often than their classmates, especially when they adopted the perspective of the victim or witness. Bullies did not consider assertive strategies as efficient in stopping the bully. Defenders, outsiders, victims and children not involved, on the other hand, were very much in favour of strategies aimed at solving the conflict through nonchalance or assertiveness, especially when they imagined being the bully. Girls chose assertive strategies more often than boys and younger children preferred nonchalance more often than older children, who tended to choose retaliation more often. Suggestions for intervention are made. © 2005 NFER
The Personality Trait of Environmental Sensitivity Predicts Children's Positive Response to School-Based Antibullying Intervention
Background: Meta-analyses on the effectiveness of anti-bullying interventions show that average effects tend to be significant but small. Informed by the Vantage Sensitivity framework (Pluess and Belsky, 2013) the current study aims at testing whether individual differences in Environmental Sensitivity predict treatment response to an anti-bullying intervention. Method: Large randomized controlled trial with 2,042 pupils (grade 4 and 6) randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition. Results: Significant Intervention effects on victimization and internalizing symptoms (but not bullying or externalizing symptoms) were moderated by both Environmental Sensitivity and gender, with boys scoring high on sensitivity benefitting significantly more than less sensitive boys from the effects of the intervention regarding reduced victimization and internalizing symptoms. Conclusions: Findings are consistent with the notion of Vantage Sensitivity, suggesting that some individuals are disproportionately likely to respond to treatment while others are more resistant as a function of individual differences in environmental sensitivity
Ethnic Bullying Victimization in Italy: The Role of Acculturation Orientation for Ethnic Minority Adolescents With Differing Citizenship Statuses
This study examines the role of acculturation orientation toward home and host countries in ethnic bullying victimization, by considering citizenship status and taking into account social withdrawal. Within a larger school project with middle and high school students, we analyzed data on 252 adolescents from immigrant backgrounds: 71 born abroad without Italian citizenship (Males = 71.4%; mean age = 13.98, SD = 1.7); 96 born in Italy to immigrant parents and without Italian citizenship (Males = 58.3%; mean age = 13.26, SD = 1.6); and 85 Italian citizens born in Italy with an immigrant parent (Males = 54.7%; mean age = 13.12, SD = 1.5). At the univariate level we found that the group of adolescents born abroad with foreign parents showed significantly higher levels of ethnic victimization compared to the group of adolescents born in Italy with an Italian parent. The latter also reported a significantly higher mean in Acculturation Orientation toward their Host Country (i.e., Italy) compared to the other two groups. Looking at the processes working within each group, we found differences in the patterns of association between acculturation orientation and ethnic bullying victimization. Specifically, we found a significant and positive association between acculturation orientation toward the home country and ethnic victimization in the two groups of adolescents born in Italy, while acculturation orientation toward the host country seems to be a protective factor only for adolescents with Italian citizenship. Acculturation orientation does not play any role in ethnic victimization for the first generation of immigrants, while for this group we found a stronger positive effect of Social Withdrawal. Citizenship status appears to be a good indicator of belonging to an ethnic minority group with a background of immigration: it seems to catch specific processes in ethnic bullying victimization. © Copyright © 2020 Palladino, Nappa, Zambuto and Menesini
Bullying in schools: the state of knowledge and effective interventions
During the school years, bullying is one of the most common expressions of violence in the peer context. Research on bullying started more than forty years ago, when the phenomenon was defined as aggressive, intentional acts carried out by a group or an individual repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him- or herself'. Three criteria are relevant in order to define aggressive behaviour as bullying: (1) repetition, (2) intentionality and (3) an imbalance of power. Given these characteristics, bullying is often defined as systematic abuse of power by peers. It is recognised globally as a complex and serious problem. In the present paper, we discuss the prevalence, age and gender differences, and various types of bullying, as well as why it happens and how long it lasts, starting from the large surveys carried out in western countries and to a lower extent in low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence rates vary widely across studies; therefore, specific attention will be devoted to the definition, time reference period and frequency criterion. We will also focus on risk factors as well as short- and long-term outcomes of bullying and victimisation. Finally, a section will be dedicated to review what is known about effective prevention of bullying
Adolescents' Ethnic Hate Speech Exposure and Ethnic Bullying Perpetration: The Moderating Role of Tolerance Towards Diversity and Gender
Information and Communication Technologies have become powerful tools for adolescents, but they have enabled a huge number of online risks, such as being exposed to Online Hate Speech (OHS). High exposure to hateful content has been linked to despicable offline actions, including hate crimes. However, there is a lack of studies considering the associations with certain specific forms, such as the perpetration of bullying. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap in the literature by analysing the associations between exposure to OHS targeting ethnic minorities and ethnic bullying perpetration, and considering the potential moderating role of tolerance towards diversity and of gender. Participants were 960 high school students (53.6% females; Mage = 15 years, SD = 0.59). Data were collected in January/February 2020, before the first lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings suggest that being exposed to ethnic OHS is significantly, but weakly, associated with traditional ethnic bullying perpetration. Moreover, this association is moderated by tolerance towards diversity and by gender. In particular, for male adolescents, at low and middle levels of tolerance, higher ethnic OHS exposure is not associated with a higher tendency to perpetrate bullying toward peers with a different ethnicity. For females, instead, tolerance is not a moderator in the relationship between ethnic OHS exposure and ethnic bullying perpetration. Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications
Differences and Similarities across Four Countries
Cyberbullying is a ubiquitous topic when considering young people and internet
and communication technologies (ICTs). For interventional purposes, it is
essential to take into account the perspective of adolescents. This is the
reason why our main focus is (1) investigating the role of different criteria
in the perceived severity of cyberbullying incidents, and (2) examining the
differences between countries in the perceived severity of cyberbullying. The
sample consisted of 1,964 adolescents (48.2% girls) from middle and high
schools of four different countries, i.e., Estonia, Italy, Germany, and
Turkey. The participants' age ranged from 12 to 20 years old with a mean age
of 14.49 (SD = 1.66) years. To assess perceived severity, participants rated a
set of 128 scenarios, which systematically included one or more of five
criteria (intentionality, repetition, imbalance of power, public vs. private,
and anonymity) and represented four types of cyberbullying behaviors
(WrittenâVerbal, Visual, Exclusion, Impersonation). The role of different
criteria was analyzed using the Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling
(ESEM). Results showed a similar structure across the four countries
(invariant except for the latent factors' means). Further, criteria of
imbalance of power and, to a lesser extent, intentionality, anonymity, and
repetition always in combination, were found to be the most important criteria
to define the severity of cyberbullying. Differences between countries
highlighted specific features of Turkish students, who perceived all scenarios
as more severe than adolescents from other countries and were more sensitive
to imbalance of power. German and Italian students showed an opposite
perception of anonymity combined with intentionality. For Italian
participants, an anonymous attack was less threatening than for participants
of other countries, whereas for German students anonymity caused more
insecurity and fear. In addition, Italian adolescents were more perceptive of
the criterion of intentionality. Finally, Estonian adolescents did not show
strong differences in their factor scores compared to adolescents from the
other countries
Aggressions, social cognitions, anger and sadness in bullies and victims
Background: The present study aimed to investigate children's social information processing (SIP) and emotions in the bullying situation, taking into account reactive and proactive aggression. More specifically, we investigated the way in which children interpret social information, which goals they select, how they evaluate their responses and which emotions they express in hypothetical situations. Method: The participants comprised 242 Dutch children (120 girls and 122 boys; mean age: 117.2 months), who were assigned by means of peer nominations (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, et al., 1996) to one of the following roles: bully (n = 21), follower of the bully (n = 38), victim (n = 35), defender of the victim (n = 48), outsider (n = 52) and not involved (n = 32). Sixteen children (including 3 bully/victims) were not given any role. The reactive and proactive aggression scale (Dodge, & Coie, 1987) was filled out by teachers in order to test the association between these types of aggression and involvement in bullying. Children were presented with ambiguous scenarios and responded to questions about attribution of intent, goal selection and emotions (anger and sadness). In addition, two questionnaires were administered to children: one assessed perceived self-efficacy in performing aggression, inhibiting aggression and using verbal persuasion skills, and the other assessed expected outcomes from behaving aggressively or prosocially. Results: Results showed that while reactive aggression was common in bullies and victims, proactive aggression was only characteristic of bullies. Both bullies and victims, compared to the other children, scored higher on hostile interpretation, anger, retaliation and ease of aggression. Bullies and followers claimed that it was easy for them to use verbal persuasion, while victims turned out to be the saddest group. All children, irrespective of their role in the peer group, thought that aggressive as well as prosocial behavior was more likely to produce desired results from a friendly peer than from an aggressive one. Conclusions: Bullies and victims seem to be similar in reactive aggression, SIP, and in the expression of anger, but the motivations which lead to their behavior may be different, as well as the final outcomes of their acts. © Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2004
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