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Bullying and cyberbullying are highly prevalent in today's society. However, the personality profiles of different roles involved in this phenomenon remain little known. This study aims (1) to examine the association between bullying and cyberbullying in adolescents; and (2) to analyze the relationship between bullying and cyberbullying in terms of the domains and facets of the five-factor model (FFM). A total of 910 adolescents aged 12 to 19 years old participated. They were administered self-report assessments of aggression and victimization in bullying and cyberbullying, as well as the JS-NEO-S questionnaire. The results provide evidence of co-occurrence between bullying and cyberbullying (p < .001). We observed higher neuroticism in victims and aggressor-victims, higher openness in victims, higher agreeableness in victims and non-aggressor non-victims and higher conscientiousness in non-aggressor non-victims as compared with the rest of the groups (p < .001). Comparison of the four cyberbullying groups showed that cybervictims score higher in neuroticism and openness, cybervictims and non-cybervictims non-cyberaggressors score higher in agreeableness and non-cybervictims non-cyberaggressors score higher in conscientiousness (p < .001) In conclusion, this study provides a broad, systematic view of the personality traits associated with different roles implicated in traditional bullying and cyberbullying.

Background: The bullying phenomenon has serious consequences for those that are involved. In order to find more effective ways to eradicate it from the schools, more research is needed. In this context, teacher management and emotional intelligence (EI) are shown to be relevant keys to consider., Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse the ways in which teacher management and trait EI affect involvement in bullying aggression and victimization., Sample: A total of 2,806 Spanish schoolchildren (51.8% girls; Age M = 15.44; SD = 1.79) participated in this transversal study., Methods: Self-report questionnaires were administrated; four of the dimensions of the Schoolwide Climate Scale: Bullying victimization; bullying aggression; positive teacher management; and negative teacher management. They also completed the Spanish version of the TMMS-24 EI questionnaire. After encoding the data, six structural equation models were created to study the direct and joint effects of teacher management and trait EI on bullying aggression and victimization. The models were run for both the whole sample and split samples based on the education cycles and sex., Results: Results showed that both positive and negative teacher management were closely linked to involvement in bullying aggression and victimization. EI was also found to be directly related to bullying involvement. Furthermore, results revealed that teacher management was directly related to trait EI. Education cycle differences were found, but no sex-specific differences were apparent in the sample., Conclusions: Conclusions of the study highlight the important role that teacher management plays with regard to bullying involvement and trait EI, and include a discussion of the need to include teacher management in bullying prevention programmes at schools., (© 2015 The British Psychological Society.)

Student attitudes toward aggression have been linked to individual aggressive behavior, but the relationship between school-wide normative beliefs about aggression and aggressive behavior poses some important measurement challenges that have not been adequately examined. The current study investigated the factor structure, measurement invariance, and criterion-related validity of a six-item Aggressive Attitudes scale using a large sample of seventh- and eighth-grade students (n = 39,364) from 423 schools. Analytic procedures accounted for the frequently ignored modeling problems of clustered and ordinal data to provide more reliable and accurate model estimates and standard errors. The resulting second-order factor structure of the Aggressive Attitudes scale demonstrated measurement invariance across gender, grade, and race/ethnicity groups. Criterion-related validity was supported with eight student- and school-level indices of aggressive behavior., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

This study investigates the relationships between individual and collective moral disengagement and aggression-related behaviors (peer aggression, defending, and passive bystanding) among 918 adolescents (55.8% boys; M age = 14.1 years, SD = 1.1). Hierarchical linear modeling showed that, at the individual level, aggressive behavior was significantly explained by both individual moral disengagement and student perceived collective moral disengagement, which was also positively associated with defending. Student perceived collective moral disengagement moderated the link between individual moral disengagement and peer aggression. At the class level, classroom collective moral disengagement explained between-class variability in all the three aggression-related behaviors. These results extend previous research by demonstrating the role of collective moral disengagement at the individual and the class levels and have potential implications for interventions.

The current study tested whether callous-unemotional (CU) traits explained unique variance in measures of aggression and bullying, and in measures assessing cognitive and affective correlates to aggression, when controlling for conduct problem severity. In a sample of 284 ethnically diverse students (ages 9 to 14 years), a self-report measure of CU traits did not explain unique variance in self-report measures of reactive aggression but did interact with conduct problems in predicting proactive aggression, with conduct problems being more strongly related to proactive aggression in students high on CU traits. Conduct problems were also more strongly related to peer-reports of bullying in girls high on CU traits. Further, CU traits were negatively related to behaviors that defend victims of bullying, independent of conduct problem severity. Finally, conduct problems were more strongly related to anger dysregulation in students low on CU traits, and conduct problems were more strongly related to positive expectations for aggressive behavior in girls high on CU traits. These findings provide support for the proposal to include CU traits as a specifier for the diagnosis of conduct disorder., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.)

This study examined physiological correlates (cortisol and α-amylase [AA]) of peer victimization and aggression in a sample of 228 adolescents (45% male, 55% female; 90% African American; M age = 14 years, SD = 1.6 years) who participated in a longitudinal study of stress, physiology, and adjustment. Adolescents were classified into victimization/aggression groups based on patterns with three waves of data. At Wave 3, youth completed the Social Competence Interview (SCI), and four saliva samples were collected prior to, during, and following the SCI. Repeated-measures analyses of variance with victimization/aggression group as the predictor, and physiological measures as outcomes, controlling for time of day, pubertal status, and medication use revealed significant Group × SCI Phase interactions for salivary AA (sAA), but not for cortisol. The results did not differ by sex. For analyses with physical victimization/aggression, aggressive and nonaggressive victims showed increases in sAA during the SCI, nonvictimized aggressors showed a decrease, and the normative contrast group did not show any change. For analyses with relational victimization/aggression, nonaggressive victims were the only group who demonstrated sAA reactivity. Incorporating physiological measures into peer victimization studies may give researchers and clinicians insight into youth's behavior regulation, and help shape prevention or intervention efforts.

Background: To assess whether urban schoolchildren with aggressive behavior are more likely than peers to have symptoms suggestive of sleep-disordered breathing., Methods: Cross-sectional survey of sleep and behavior in schoolchildren. Validated screening assessments for conduct problems (Connor's rating scale), bullying behavior, and sleep-disordered breathing (pediatric sleep questionnaire) were completed by parents. Teachers completed Connor's teacher rating scale., Results: Among 341 subjects (51% female), 110 (32%) were rated by a parent or teacher as having a conduct problem (T-score ⩾65) and 78 (23%) had symptoms suggestive of sleep-disordered breathing. Children with conduct problems, bullying, or discipline referrals, in comparison to non-aggressive peers, more often had symptoms suggestive of sleep-disordered breathing (each p<0.05). Children with vs. without conduct problems were more likely to snore habitually (p<0.5). However, a sleepiness subscale alone, and not a snoring subscale, predicted conduct problems after accounting for age, gender, a measure of socioeconomic status, and stimulant use., Conclusions: Urban schoolchildren with aggressive behaviors may have symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing with disproportionate frequency. Sleepiness may impair emotional regulation necessary to control aggression., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)