Search

AbstractThe goals of this project are to (1) create a list of children’s books that are related to bullying, (2) summarize how bibliotherapy can be used, and (3) review and critique the children’s literature involving bullying. The list includes books for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. For each book, the Accelerated Reader points and characteristics are summarized including: (a) target audience (i.e., bullies, victims, bystanders, or a combination), (b) major theme, (c) bully/victim gender, (d) race or ethnicity of the bully/victim (e) setting, (f) type of bullying, and (g) resolution. The curated list provides details regarding a total of 56 books. The findings are summarized and gaps in the children’s literature related to bullying are highlighted.

Bullying, both traditional and cyber, has been associated with several negative outcomes for students, but when bystanders (such as peers or adults) intervene, bullying will often decrease or stop. Teachers are especially important adult bystanders because they are more likely than parents to witness or hear about bullying, especially bullying that occurs in the school setting, but previous research has shown that teachers often do not intervene. Applying the Bystander Intervention Model (notice the event, interpret as an emergency, accept responsibility, know what to do, and act) to bullying in schools may help us understand why teachers may or may not intervene. Via self-report, this study examined associations among affective empathy, perceived bullying seriousness, and each step of the Bystander Intervention Model in Bullying for both traditional bullying and cyber bullying among 150 elementary-high school teachers. Results indicate a positive association between affective empathy and engagement in each step of the Bystander Intervention Model for traditional bullying. Additionally, affective empathy was positively and significantly related to two of the steps (notice the event and take responsibility) for cyber bullying. There was also a positive association between perceived bullying seriousness for two steps of the model (notice the event and interpret as an emergency) for traditional bullying. Implications for teacher involvement in bullying prevention and intervention are discussed.

We propose an innovative approach to studying interventions in racial microaggression by applying the five-step bystander intervention model (i.e., Notice the Event, Interpret the Event as Needing Intervention, Accept Responsibility, Know How to Intervene, and Act). The goals were to develop a measure of bystander intervention in racial microaggressions, explore support for a conceptual model, and measure differences between Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and White college students. The sample consisted of 336 BIPOC and 191 White participants ages 18 to 25. Participants completed online surveys reporting their engagement in each of the five steps. We found that—overall—BIPOC and White participants have similar experiences with bystander intervention in racial microaggressions. There was evidence of measurement invariance across BIPOC and White participants for the survey, similar paths between the steps on the conceptual model, and similar frequency of engagement on each of the steps. Implications for practice, research, teaching, and advocacy are provided.

The current study explored adolescents’ experiences with bystander intervention in cyberbullying situations. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study investigated the utility of using the five-step bystander intervention model (notice, interpret as an emergency, accept responsibility to intervene, know how to help, act) to the cyberbullying context. Adolescents also provided responses regarding the intervention actions that they have taken when they have observed cyberbullying. A racially diverse sample of 839 adolescents from a single school completed three surveys and open-ended questions. Path analysis for quantitative analyses suggests the five-step bystander intervention model seems to be a useful framework for exploring the discrete steps leading to cyberbullying intervention. In addition, experience as a victim or perpetrator of traditional bullying or cyberbullying was not strongly related to the five steps of the model. Using thematic analyses for qualitative analyses, results suggest that adolescents engage in a wide variety of intervention actions, with the majority being prosocial in nature, except when youth “bully the bully back.”

Cyber victimization is a contemporary problem facing youth and adolescents (Diamanduros, Downs, & Jenkins, 2008; Kowalski & Limber, 2007). It is imperative for researchers and school personnel to understand the associations between cyber victimization and student social-emotional outcomes. This article explores (a) gender differences in rates of cyber victimization, (b) overlap between traditional and cyber victimization, (c) differences in social-emotional outcomes across victimization classes, and (d) associations among cyber victimization and social-emotional risk, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems while controlling for traditional victimization among 1,152 high school students. Boys reported significantly higher rates of cyber victimization than did girls. Ten percent of students reported experiencing low levels of both cyber and traditional victimization (low dual), 3% of students reported experiencing moderate levels of both cyber and traditional victimization (moderate dual), and 1% of students reported high levels of both types of victimization (high dual). Three percent of students reported experiencing traditional victimization but not cyber victimization (traditional). There were significant differences in social and emotional problems among youth involved in victimization in various groups (i.e., uninvolved, traditional, low dual, moderate dual, and high dual). Lastly, cyber victimization significantly predicted variance in social-emotional risk and internalizing problems above and beyond that predicted by traditional victimization., Traditional victimization (i.e., receipt of physical, verbal, or relational aggression) has been widely researched in the United States and abroad. Alhough prevalence estimates vary, researchers agree that victimization is a [...]

Abstract Despite evidence that aggressive, victim, and prosocial behaviors exist among preschool children, preschool bullying has received much less attention than school-age bullying from researchers and practitioners. Preschool is an [...]

The purpose of the current study was to understand the association between bullying experiences (i.e., bullying, victimization, and defending) and social, emotional, and cognitive factors. The social factor was social skills (i.e., empathy, assertion, cooperation, responsibility); the emotional factor was emotional difficulties (i.e., personal adjustment, internalizing problems, school problems), and the cognitive factor was executive functioning skills (i.e., self-monitoring, inhibitory control, flexibility, emotional regulation). Data on students' perceptions of their own social skills, emotional difficulties, and bullying role behavior were collected from 246 sixth- through eighth-grade students. Teachers provided reports of students' executive functioning skills. Results indicated that (a) emotional difficulties were significantly and positively associated with victimization for boys and girls, (b) emotional difficulties were significantly and positively associated with defending for girls, (c) executive functioning was significantly and negatively associated with defending for boys, and (d) social skills were significantly and positively related to defending behavior for boys and girls. These results emphasize the importance of examining the social, emotional, and cognitive factors associated with bullying. Social skills and emotional and executive functioning appear to vary systematically across bullying roles and should be considered when developing targeted social-emotional interventions to stop bullying, increase defending, and support victims or those at risk for victimization., The goal of the current study was to examine social, emotional, and cognitive predictors of bullying, victimization, and defending among sixth- through eighth-grade students. The social competence and emotional health [...]

The primary purpose of this project was to explore how individual (i.e., gender of the intervener) and contextual (i.e., type of bullying and whether the target is a friend) factors influence the use and type of prosocial bystander intervention. This necessitated the development and validation of a survey that deconstructs prosocial bystander interventions. To accomplish this, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, data were collected from 484 middle school students, and an exploratory factor analysis was performed on a new survey, the Forms of Bullying Bystander Actions (FBBA). Adjustments were made to the FBBA items, and data were collected from 252 middle and high school students in Study 2. Initial evidence suggests that the FBBA has a 4-factor structure (emotional intervention, direct intervention, reporting intervention, and ignore) and can measure bystander intervention in bullying in a scenario-based format. In relation to the primary aim of the study, whether the victim is known seems to play a major role in whether youth intervene in bullying. The use of different prosocial interventions varied in frequency depending on the type of bullying and whether the victim was a friend or not, but there were no gender differences in the overall frequency of prosocial interventions.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate differences in social-emotional skills between active and passive bystanders. Data were collected on a sample of 352 middle school students using self-report of bullying role involvement and social skills and teacher reports of social/emotional competence and executive functioning skills. Using latent profile analysis, four patterns of bystander bully role combinations were identified. Then, the social/emotional competence, executive functioning, and social skills of active bystanders (i.e., defenders) and passive bystanders (i.e., outsiders) were compared. Overall, active bystanders had stronger social-emotional skills than passive bystanders. These results emphasize the association of students’ executive functioning and social skills on their bullying role participation and support creating and implementing interventions designed to improve students executive functioning and social skills to increase rates of defending.

This conceptual paper makes the case that peer victimization should be considered a potentially traumatic event due to the similarities between peer victimization and trauma in terms of definition, outcomes, theoretical frameworks, and measurement. Furthermore, there is a trend to include peer victimization on surveys measuring adverse childhood experiences and other childhood trauma. We conclude with a call for changes to the intervention and prevention efforts in the area of peer victimization. Both whole-school initiatives and programs targeting victimized students should address peer victimization in the same manner as other traumatic events in childhood.

The five-step bystander intervention model (i.e., Notice, Interpret, Accept Responsibility, Know What to Do, Act) has been utilized to study intervention in traditional bullying, but not bullying bystander behavior in online contexts. Additionally, differences in how students of color and White students are involved in bystander behavior in cyberbullying have received little attention in the literature. Thus, the primary purpose of the current study was to (a) examine the factor structure of the Bystander Intervention Model in Cyberbullying (BIM-C) measure and measurement invariance across White students and students of color, (b) examine differences in engagement in five steps of the bystander intervention model between White students and students of color, and (c) test a conceptual bystander intervention separately for White students and students of color. The current study included 872 middle school and high school students (52.9% female). Results from the measurement invariance testing, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling provide evidence for measurement invariance across White students and students of color. In comparing White students and students of color, overall, there were no major differences in both the mean levels of engagement in the five steps of the bystander intervention model and in the paths between steps of the model.

The goal of the present study was to investigate the factor structure of the Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire in an independent elementary school sample. The BPBQ is a self-report inventory that purports to measure participation or experiences in five bullying roles: perpetrator, target, assistant, defender, and outsider. The current sample included 683 primarily White 8–11-year old youth from three elementary schools in the Midwest (46% male students). Analyses generally supported the item assignments to the BPBQ five-factor model (Perpetrator, Assistant, Outsider, Target, Defender). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the best fitting model consisted of the two general dimensions (Pro-perpetrator, Pro-target) and five group factors: Perpetrator, Assistant, Outsider, Target, and Defender, as was observed with an independent sample of middle school students. There is general support for the factor structure of the BPBQ, but it is particularly useful if interested in the broader Pro-perpetrator and Pro-target dimensions.

This study examined the generalizability and dependability of observational estimates of middle and high school teachers’ use of praise and reprimands. Frequency of behavior-specific praise, general praise, and total reprimands were collected across 67, 20-min observations that took place during class-wide instruction in general education classrooms. Generalizability theory was used to determine the number of observations needed to obtain dependable estimates of teacher behavior. Behavior-specific praise rates were consistently low. General praise rates were slightly higher and reprimand rates were notably higher and slightly more variable. Total reprimands had the strongest generalizability results and general praise had the weakest. Behavior-specific praise reached an acceptable level of dependability after 15 min, whereas general praise required a 35-min observation, and reprimand only required 5 min. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This exploratory study extends the literature on teachers’ stress and self-efficacy in relation to behavior management. Sixty-six middle and high school teachers’ use of praise and reprimand during a 20-min observation, in the general education setting, were examined. Following the observation, teachers completed stress and self-efficacy scales, related to student misbehavior. Teacher stress and teacher self-efficacy were significantly negatively related. Further, teachers who reported higher levels of stress used more reprimands, and teachers who reported higher levels of self-efficacy used fewer reprimands. Last, as teachers’ behavioral difficulty ratings for their class increased, so did their use of reprimands. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This study investigated the extent to which adolescents’ personal normative attitudes (also referred to as personal norms) and perceived peer norms regarding bullying, sexual harassment, and bystander intervention predicted each step of the five-step bystander intervention model (i.e., Notice, Interpret, Accept Responsibility, Know how to Help, Act) for bullying and sexual harassment among two-hundred thirty-three high school students in the Northeastern United States. Interaction effects of gender, personal norms, and perceived peer norms were also assessed. As predicted, perceived peer norms moderated the relations between personal norms and all five bystander intervention steps. However, some effects differed by gender and some differed in direction from predictions. Students who were more anti-bullying/harassment scored higher on some bystander intervention steps when they also perceived their peers to be more anti-bullying and harassment, with some models showing gender differences between male and female students. Personal and perceived peer norms are related to adolescents’ engagement in the bystander intervention model, suggesting that both norms should be targets of interventions encouraging youth to intervene in incidents of bullying and sexual harassment.

The goal of the current study was to examine whether contextual characteristics of a school are related to student interventions in bullying. Specifically, participants reported their perceptions of how teachers responded to bullying, school climate, and the promotion of social emotional wellness. The study included 390 eighth to twelfth grade students from the Southeastern region of the United States. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed good model fit and measurement invariance across sex was established. Structural models indicated that for boys, perceptions of social emotional learning (SEL) promotion were positively and significantly related to their intervention in bullying. For girls, both teacher interventions and perceptions of SEL promotion were positively related to their intervention in bullying. Results suggest that characteristics of the school are important for promoting interventions in bullying among high school students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether language skills can predict teacher reports of social skills (empathy and assertion) and social behavior (prosocialness, aggression, and victimization) in preschool children. Relationships among social skills and behaviors were also examined. Ninety-eight preschool children were administered standardized language measures and nine classroom teachers completed portions of social skill rating scales. Correlational and regression analyses examined relationships among social and language variables. Results indicate positive associations among both language and social skills and prosocial behavior but negative associations between language abilities and victimization. However, measured language skills were not significant predictors for reported prosocial behavior, aggression, or victimization. Based on current findings, we cannot expect language skills aloneto predict engagement in negative social behaviors in preschool classrooms. While correlations among several variables exist, social skill competence, particularly empathy and assertion, better predicted engagement in perceived appropriate social interactions than language abilities. The relationship between language and social skills warrants continued investigation, especially as the complex interplay of language and social skill development unfolds in preschool classrooms. Early childhood education teams should continue to support contexts for facilitated language and social growth to aid positive social behaviors.

AbstractPerceptions of a safe and supportive school environment are imperative to the well-being of all students. Positive perceptions of school safety and supports may be especially important for students attending boarding schools, given that many of these students live on school grounds. However, these experiences have rarely been studied for boarding school students. The current study aimed to address this gap in the literature by investigating relations among perceptions of school-wide bullying and physical and emotional safety among a sample of students from one boarding school (N = 358). School mental health supports were also examined as a moderator in the relation between school-wide bullying and school safety. Results indicated that school-wide bullying was significantly related to both emotional and physical safety—although more strongly related to physical bullying—for both male and female students. School mental health supports were a significant moderator, or buffer, in the relation between school-wide bullying and emotional safety for males. Further research is needed with larger and more diverse samples of boarding students to increase generalizability of these findings.Impact StatementA positive school climate is essential for the well-being of students attending boarding schools, yet this has rarely been studied among boarding students. The findings of this study contribute to this important gap in the literature and suggest that boarding students’ perceptions of school-wide bullying are related to feeling both physically and emotionally unsafe. Male, but not female, students who perceive the school supports students’ mental health reported feeling emotionally safe at school regardless of prevalence of bullying.

The goal of the current study was to investigate the role of academic enablers on the association between symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity and academic achievement. There were 395 3rd through 5th grade students (48% boys). Students self-rated behavioral symptoms and classroom teachers completed ratings of academic enablers. Achievement was modeled as a latent variable including CBM probes, teacher ratings of academic skills, and student grades. Results indicated that (a) inattention was negatively associated with academic enablers and academic performance, (b) inattention had a small negative direct and indirect association with math outcomes in most models, while hyperactivity/impulsivity demonstrated showed a small, negative indirect association in one model, (c) and inattention had a small negative indirect association with reading in three models; hyperactivity/impulsivity demonstrated a small indirect association with reading in one model. This study points to the role of academic enabling behaviors in partially explaining the association between inattention and academic underachievement.

The goal of this study was to examine the relation between students’ perspectives of SEL instruction with SEL skills and peer relationships, and whether experiences of peer victimization moderated these associations. Participants included 288 ethnically and racially diverse 8th–12th grade students from the Southeast region of the USA. Self-reported ratings of their school’s use of SEL instruction, personal experiences with peer relationships and peer victimization, and perceived SEL skills were gathered. Using path analysis, we found that student perceptions of SEL instruction were positively related to student SEL skills and positive perceptions of peer relationships, and the strengths of these associations were similar across boys and girls. In addition, these associations were similar for youth experiencing low, moderate, and high levels of victimization, but were especially robust for the high-victimization group. These results are interpreted in light of and in contrast to the “healthy context paradox” which suggests that efforts to promote SEL and decrease bullying may not be beneficial for students who continue to be victimized.

ABSTRACTThe Bullying Participant Behavior Questionnaire is a 50 item self-report survey designed to measure engagement in five bullying roles: bully, victim, assistant to the bully, defender of the victim, and outsider. The goal of the current study was to examine the higher-order factor structure of the BPBQ in a large middle school sample of 784 primarily White sixth- through eighth-grade students from the Midwest region of the United States. Analyses suggested that the Victim, Defender, and Outsider items loaded on their theoretically consistent factors and the Bully and Assistant items all loaded on a single factor (Bully/Assistant). Some factor correlations were moderate and suggested the presence of higher-order factor(s). A second-order EFA showed there appear to be two higher-order factors. Factor 1 is a combination of the Bully/Assistant and Outsider dimensions while Factor 2 is a combination of Defender and Victim dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the best fitting model consisted of the two general factors. There was a Pro-bully factor consisting of the Bully, Assistant, and Outsider group factors and a Pro-victim factor consisting of the Victim and Defender factors. There is support for the use of the BPBQ, but additional refinement of the items is needed.

The goal of the current pilot study was to examine the effects of bystander intervention training on a sample of 27 high school students who were selected by their peers as opinion leaders. Measures of bystander intervention knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors were included in the within-subjects design. Sixteen of the students also participated in focus groups to provide feedback about their experiences with the training. Results showed that participating students reported increases in knowledge about bullying and sexual harassment, confidence in intervening, acceptance of responsibility, knowing what to do, and acting to intervene (including direct intervention, providing support, and reporting to an adult) from pre-to posttest. Themes from focus groups indicated that students found the training relevant and helpful, particularly for focusing on both bullying and sexual harassment and for providing opportunities to learn and practice multiple intervention strategies. Barriers to intervening based on the type of violence (e.g., physical vs. relational or verbal) and relationship with the people involved were also themes. Directions for future research and implications for practice, such as focusing on dissemination to the larger student body and implementing bystander intervention training within the context of a positive school climate that emphasizes social and emotional competencies, are discussed.

Teacher-directed violence (TDV), or violence in schools directed toward teachers, is a growing concern in contemporary schools (Bounds & Jenkins, Contemporary School Psychology, 20, 1–9, 2016; Espelage et al. 2011). Existing research suggests that some teachers are more at risk of TDV (e.g., teachers whom are White, female, homosexual, religious, older, or those teaching high school) but it is unclear if teachers from all school settings (i.e., rural, urban, or suburban) experience similar levels of TDV and stress associated with TDV. Additionally, there has been no research in the USA examining how teachers cope with teacher-directed violence. Little is known about to whom teachers reach out for social support and if that social support is effective in moderating teacher stress. Past research demonstrates that teaching is a high-stress occupation (Fimian, Exceptional Children, 52, 436–442, Fimian 1988), and some of this stress could be related to experiences of violence. The current study examined differences in TDV experiences among 117 rural, urban, and suburban teachers in the Midwest. Analyses revealed that teachers in urban schools experienced the highest levels of TDV, followed by teachers in rural schools, then suburban teachers. A similar result was found when teachers were asked about stress they experienced that was specific to violence at work. Interestingly, when assessing work stress, suburban teachers had the highest levels of work stress, followed by urban, then rural teachers.

Many studies have demonstrated that when teachers are trained to increase their use of praise, student misbehavior improves; however, few studies have examined teachers’ natural use of praise and no study has examined the relation between teachers’ natural use of praise and classroom behavior. The purpose of the current study was to examine general education teachers’ natural use of praise in elementary classrooms. One hundred forty direct behavioral observation hours were used to collect praise rates and student behavior across 28 general education classrooms (kindergarten to fifth grade). Across all grade levels, results suggest that teachers’ use of praise was low (grade-level mean rates ranging from 0.38 per minute in the fourth grade to 0.75 per minute in kindergarten) and teachers used general praise more frequently than behavior-specific praise (BSP). A significant, negative relation was found between off-task behavior and BSP (r= −.37, p= .05), indicating that teachers who used more BSP tended to have less off-task behavior in their classrooms. Implications for training teachers to increase their use of BSP as a universal strategy are discussed.

Teacher-directed violence, or violence found in a school setting that involves teacher victimization (Espelage et al. in The American Psychologist, 68(2), 75–87, 2011), is a relatively new area of study in education. Teacher-directed violence or teacher victimization includes obscene gestures/remarks, harassment, verbal threats, and theft of personal property. Research on the topic began in the past decade, but still there is limited information about teacher-directed violence, particularly in the USA. Researchers need to understand how much and what types of violence teachers are subjected to in order to develop policy reform (Espelage et al. in The American Psychologist, 68(2), 75–87, 2011). Additionally, research has not examined how teachers cope after experiencing violence, such as to whom teachers turn for social support after experiencing violence, and if social support is effective in helping them cope. The current study examined type and frequency of teacher-directed violence, to whom teachers go to for social support, and the frequency of support from different sources, as well as perceived social support of teachers who experience teacher-directed violence compared to teachers who do not experience violence. This study also examined stress related to teacher-directed violence. Results revealed that teachers experience verbal violence most often, teachers go to another teacher or spouse/significant other for support, and there were no significant differences in stress for teachers who did and did not experience teacher-directed violence.

Some evidence suggests that teachers may have a negative bias against and be less accurate in academic judgments of students with behavioral characteristics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thus, examining the accuracy of their judgments is an important area of investigation. The current study examined the accuracy of teachers’ judgments on curriculum-based measures (CBM) of reading, math, and writing for students with and without characteristics of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Participants included 72 elementary students, 30 with characteristics of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity (IIH group) and 42 without these characteristics (comparison group). Overall, there were no major differences between groups in teachers’ accuracy. Regarding indirect judgments (i.e., ratings of academic skills on a rating scale), teachers’ ratings were positively related to reading- and math-CBM for both groups. There were few significant differences in teacher judgments between the groups of students with and without symptoms of IIH on indirect ratings of achievement, but when examining overestimation and accuracy of direct ratings, a different picture emerged. Teachers overestimated performance on reading for both groups (75 and 43 words, comparison and IIH, respectively); however, this difference was not statistically significant. For math, teachers overestimated for both groups (7.5 and 11.5 points, comparison and IIH, respectively) and they overestimated significantly more for the comparison group.

The goal of this paper was to critically review and evaluate five common social-emotional and behavioral screeners: Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (Kamphaus and Reynolds 2007), Behavior Intervention Monitoring Assessment System (McDougal et al. 2011), Social Skills Improvement System Performance Screening Guide (Elliott and Gresham 2008), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman Journal of Child Psychology, Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 38, 581–586, 1997), and Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (Walker and Severson 1992). School professionals are often involved in choosing universal screening assessments; therefore, this review was intended to inform the audience about important features such as use, standardization sample and norms, scores and interpretation, and psychometric properties of commonly used social-emotional universal screeners.