Search

School transitions are common educational experiences for children and adolescents and many of them worry about being bullied during this type of major life-changing point. In a sample of 701 Canadians assessed yearly from grade 5 (age 10) to grade 12 (age 18), we examined heterogeneous patterns of bullying involvement while statistically accounting for the transition into high school. Gender differences were also examined. Results indicated that on average, bullying victimization declined over time with a significant drop noted between grade 8 and grade 9 (the transition into high school), with few differences between girls and boys. Bullying perpetration also declined for most students (no gender differences), with a notable drop found at the transition into high school. However, for a subset of adolescents, the transition into high school was accompanied by an increase in bullying perpetration. These varied experiences highlight the need to model heterogeneity when examining the impact of school transitions on bullying, a neglected focus of inquiry to date. Our results suggest that moving into high school is beneficial for most adolescents involved in bullying, but not for all., (© 2023 The Authors. Aggressive Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

We examined the impact of COVID-19 on bullying prevalence rates in a sample of 6578 Canadian students in Grades 4 to 12. To account for school changes associated with the pandemic, students were randomized at the school level into two conditions: (1) the pre-COVID-19 condition, assessing bullying prevalence rates retrospectively before the pandemic, and (2) the current condition, assessing rates during the pandemic. Results indicated that students reported far higher rates of bullying involvement before the pandemic than during the pandemic across all forms of bullying (general, physical, verbal, and social), except for cyber bullying, where differences in rates were less pronounced. Despite anti-Asian rhetoric during the pandemic, no difference was found between East Asian Canadian and White students on bullying victimization. Finally, our validity checks largely confirmed previous published patterns in both conditions: (1) girls were more likely to report being bullied than boys, (2) boys were more likely to report bullying others than girls, (3) elementary school students reported higher bullying involvement than secondary school students, and (4) gender diverse and LGTBQ + students reported being bullied at higher rates than students who identified as gender binary or heterosexual. These results highlight that the pandemic may have mitigated bullying rates, prompting the need to consider retaining some of the educational reforms used to reduce the spread of the virus that could foster caring interpersonal relationships at school such as reduced class sizes, increased supervision, and blended learning., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Bullying events have frequently been the focus of coverage by news media, including news stories about teens whose death from suicide was attributed to cyberbullying. Previous work has shown that news media coverage is influential to readers in areas such as suicide, infectious disease outbreaks, and tobacco use. News media may be an untapped resource to promote bullying prevention messages, though current news media approaches to describing bullying and cyberbullying remain unexplored. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current state of news media coverage of bullying and cyberbullying. A sample of newspaper articles covering bullying or cyberbullying across regional and national US newspapers from 6 recent years was identified. A content analysis using natural language processing was conducted with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software program for key variables including affective, social, and cognitive processes. Evaluation included the percentage of words that represented Fear-based reporting such as alarmist words (e.g., epidemic, tragic), as well as words that represent Public Health-oriented messages such as prevention. A total of 463 newspaper articles met inclusion criteria, including 140 cyberbullying articles and 323 bullying articles. Findings indicated that cyberbullying articles scored higher on affective processes such as measures of anxiety (Mdn = 0.34) compared to bullying articles (Mdn = 0.22). A greater number of cyberbullying articles were Fear-based (41.4%) than were bullying articles (19.5%). An equivalent number of cyberbullying articles (50.0%) and bullying articles (49.8%) were Public Health-oriented. Findings may be used to collaborate with journalists toward optimizing prevention-oriented reporting.

School-level school climate was examined in relation to self-reported peer victimization and teacher-rated academic achievement (grade point average; GPA). Participants included a sample of 1,023 fifth-grade children nested within 50 schools. Associations between peer victimization, school climate, and GPA were examined using multilevel modeling, with school climate as a contextual variable. Boys and girls reported no differences in victimization by their peers, although boys had lower GPAs than girls. Peer victimization was related to lower GPA and to a poorer perception of school climate (individual-level), which was also associated with lower GPA. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that peer victimization was again negatively associated with GPA, and that lower school-level climate was associated with lower GPA. Although no moderating effects of school-level school climate or sex were observed, the relation between peer victimization and GPA remained significant after taking into account (a) school-level climate scores, (b) individual variability in school-climate scores, and (c) several covariates--ethnicity, absenteeism, household income, parental education, percentage of minority students, type of school, and bullying perpetration. These findings underscore the importance of a positive school climate for academic success and viewing school climate as a fundamental collective school outcome. Results also speak to the importance of viewing peer victimization as being harmfully linked to students' academic performance., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

The relative impact of school transition versus development on peer victimization and bullying perpetration were examined in a natural experiment involving 698 students where half transitioned into middle school from Grade 5 to Grade 6 and the other half remained in their elementary school over the same period. Results indicated that, on average, peer victimization decreased over the transition period while bullying perpetration remained stable for the whole sample. Multilevel modeling was used to investigate the effects of school transition and sex on changes in victimization and perpetration. Results indicated that the effect of transition status on changes in peer victimization was moderated by sex. Middle school transition status predicted decreases in peer victimization for girls, but not for boys, who transitioned. However, school transition status and participants’ sex (and their interaction) did not predict changes in perpetration over time. Our findings indicate that changes in student involvement with peer victimization are better understood as a contextual rather than a typical developmental process, whereas bullying perpetration may be better understood as developmental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental cascade models linking childhood peer victimization, internalizing and externalizing problems, and academic functioning were examined in a sample of 695 children assessed in Grade 3 (academic only) and Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. Results revealed several complex patterns of associations in which poorer functioning in one domain influenced poorer outcomes in other areas. For example, a symptom driven pathway was consistently found with internalizing problems predicting future peer victimization. Support for an academic incompetence model was also found- lower GPA in Grade 5, 6, and 7 was associated with more externalizing issues in the following year, and poor writing performance in Grade 3 predicted lower grades in Grade 5, which in turn predicted more externalizing problems in Grade 6. Results highlight the need to examine bidirectional influences and multifarious transactions that exist between peer victimization, mental health, and academic functioning over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]