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Emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dysregulation is a risk factor for severe outcomes, calling for reliable measures to assess it, including the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Dysregulation Profile (SDQ-DP) defined by 5 or 15 items. This study explored for the first time the factor structure, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability of the SDQ-DPs teacher-report in a sample of Italian children (N = 1000; age 7–12 years). The gender invariance of the SDQ-DPs, construct validity, and associations with school variables were also evaluated. A first-order model for the SDQ-DP 5-item and a bifactor model for the SDQ-DP 15-item best fitted the data. Full measurement invariance across gender was confirmed only for the 15-item scale. Internal and test-retest reliabilities were weaker for the 5-item scale. Both SDQ-DPs were similarly associated with a measure of emotion regulation skills and some school variables. This study provides indications for a more conscious use of the two scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying at school is a serious social problem that influences the wellbeing of everyone involved, that is, victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. Among the many health and psychological problems that these individuals may develop, emotion dysregulation appears to be a common marker. To date, however, it remains unclear whether bullying experienced during the school years is associated with emotion dysregulation also in adulthood. In this study, by adopting a retrospective approach, we investigated whether involvement in bullying at school—either as a bully, victim, or bystander—could put these individuals at risk of presenting deficits in emotion regulation in adulthood, as assessed with behavioral (explicit) and physiological (implicit) indexes (i.e., skin conductance), and whether the association between the involvement in bullying and emotion regulation was direct or mediated by other factors, such as somatic complaints and sensation seeking. A total of 58 young adults were asked to control their emotional reactions in front of images with strong emotional content, and to explicitly evaluate them with ratings, while their arousal was measured through skin conductance. They also responded to questionnaires about retrospective involvement in bullying, somatic complaints, and sensation seeking. Results revealed that victimization and bystander behavior were directly and negatively associated with emotion regulation as assessed with skin conductance, whereas bullying was positively associated with implicit emotion regulation through the mediation of sensation seeking. Interestingly, emotion regulation as assessed with explicit ratings was not associated with any of the characteristics of the participants. Our study suggests that being directly (as victim) but also indirectly (as bystander) involved in bullying at school time is associated with difficulties in emotional wellbeing in adulthood. Furthermore, it reveals that behavioral and physiological indexes associated with emotion regulation dissociate, suggesting that subtle physiological changes may remain hidden from explicit behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research reveals that social anxiety may be predictive of bullying victimization, but it is not clear whether this relation stands for different groups of youth. The present study examines this association by employing a longitudinal design over 1 year and including the moderating role of developmental period (childhood vs. early adolescence) and students' immigrant status (native vs. non-native). T1 sample included 506 children (46.44% girls, mean age M = 8.55 years, SD = 0.55) and 310 early adolescents (50% girls, mean age = 12.54 years, SD = 0.59) recruited in schools in Northern Italy. Due to missing cases and drop-outs from T1 to T2, the final sample comprised 443 and 203 students from primary and middle school, respectively. Social anxiety and peer victimization were assessed through self-reported questionnaires. Results indicated that victimization at T2 was predicted by a 3-way interaction between T1 social anxiety, immigrant status, and developmental period. In particular, socially anxious early adolescents with an immigrant background were the most victimized. The results are discussed in terms of group dynamics and intergroup processes. The findings highlight the importance of personal variables in the cumulation of risks: social anxiety is more predictive of bullying victimization for immigrant early adolescents than for children or native early adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Information Processing (SIP) theory and the Social Cognitive Theory of Moral Agency were integrated to investigate the associations between SIP and bullying, guilt, and moral disengagement. Participants were 341 children and early adolescents (M age = 11.14). Two social exclusion vignettes were administered to assess three SIP steps (step 2: Attribution of hostile intent; step 3: Selection of antisocial goals, and step 4: Generation of aggressive responses). Guilt was assessed through five vignettes. A self-report measure was used to assess moral disengagement and peer nominations were used to assess bullying perpetration. Moderated mediation analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. Findings indicated that attribution of hostile intent was associated with selection of antisocial goals, which in turn, was associated with the generation of aggressive responses among participants with high levels of bullying and low levels of guilt and moral disengagement. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical relevance. • This study examined the information processing of social exclusion cues. • Findings support the sequential nature of the Social Information Processing steps. • Bullying, moral disengagement and guilt moderate the processing of exclusion cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]