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Despite the veritable influence of the peer context on the elaboration of adolescent aggression, few studies of relational aggression have directly identified and measured peer groups, limiting our ability to draw formal conclusions about the level and nature of peer influence. The current study used a developmental framework to examine peer group influence on individual levels of physical and relational aggression over a year with 6th and 7th grade students (n = 346, 51% female). A multilevel network approach was used in which peer groups were identified via social network analysis, and peer group influence was evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). HLM analyses indicated that peer group aggression (physical and relational) at time 1 was predictive of individual aggression levels at time 2 after controlling for other peer group characteristics as well as other individual risk and protective factors. Although both forms of aggression were embedded in peer networks, findings suggest that physical aggression is relatively less endemic to peer networks, and is more likely to occur in smaller, predominantly male networks. The current study highlights the importance of understanding the influence of peer group membership on adolescent aggression and points to important implications for prevention.

Background: This study fills a gap in the literature by examining how school staff members view bullying and sexual harassment and their role in preventing both. Given recent legislation, increasingly more attention is paid to bully prevention; however, student-on-student sexual harassment is less addressed. Methods: Four focus groups were conducted with 32 staff members from 4 midwestern public middle schools. Questions assessed professional development opportunities on bullying and sexual harassment prevention/intervention, personal definitions of these behaviors, and their perceptions of school norms regarding such behavior. Results: Staff members recalled receiving more professional development on bullying than sexual harassment. They tended to define sexual harassment as something that occurs between adults and/or adults and students and did perceive their role in enforcing a "sexual harassment-free" peer-to-peer school zone. Conclusion: When school administrators fail to provide professional development on both bullying and sexual harassment, staff members do not understand that sexual harassment occurs between students. Thus, they are unaware of policies to protect students from harmful experiences in educational settings and are not likely to understand their own role in preventing them. (Contains 1 table.)

The involvement of students with disabilities within the bullying dynamic has been recognized as a pressing issue within the nation's schools. Unfortunately, few studies have examined the psychosocial outcomes related to the bullying involvement of students with disabilities. However, involvement in bullying has been linked to negative short- and long-term outcomes for students with and without disabilities, increasing the necessity of exploring the relationship between psychosocial outcomes and bullying involvement. The purpose of this article is to initiate this discussion and highlight contemporary findings involving bullying among students with disabilities, as well as relate these finding to practical application and intervention.

This article reviews the extant literature on the links between peer victimization and academic performance and engagement among children and adolescents. Although most of the research on this association is based on cross-sectional investigations, research using longitudinal designs is starting to point to the fact that peer victimization does impact changes in academic performance over time. This research also points to several mediators and moderators that explain the association between repeated victimization and academic challenges, including peer rejection, depression, and decreases in students' sense of school belonging. Teachers and administrators should address peer victimization through programs and frameworks such as positive behavior intervention supports and social-emotional learning approaches. These programs decrease aggression and victimization, increase peer acceptance and social competence, and improve academic engagement and test scores.

Dating violence can involve a multitude of behaviors, including physical and emotional abuse, sexual violence and coercion, and/or behaviors that are intended to control or intimidate a dating partner. Students can be either perpetrators or victims of teen dating violence, with some youth being both a perpetrator and a victim. This review will include studies of programs implemented in schools (grades 4-12) that sought to address attitudes or beliefs supportive of teen dating violence, encourage bystander intervention or peer support, or sought to reduce the incidence of dating violence perpetration or sexual coercion in dating relationships. This review will be the first to quantitatively synthesize empirical evaluations of school-based programs aimed to reduce behaviors or change attitudes related to dating violence. This review has the potential to impact school policy and prevent consequential victimization. If indeed programs are demonstrated to be effective at reducing behaviors or attitudes supportive of teen dating violence, the strong empirical support that is gained with this type of review will bolster efforts to advocate for administrative support and funding to implement prevention programs in schools. This review can also provide insight into the type of programming (i.e. universal, psycho-educational, individual or classroom level) that is most effective in preventing victimization in dating relationships. [For the full study, see ED557967.]

Using family systems theory, this longitudinal study of middle school youth examined the effects of abuse, family conflict, and sibling aggression on sexual harassment perpetration (N = 1563; Mage 11.2, 51% boys; 39% Hispanic, 29% Black, and 19% White). Boys reported more sexual harassment than girls; perpetration increased for both. The association between a hostile home environment and sexual harassment perpetration was moderated by school experiences. School belonging buffered effects of hostile home environment on baseline sexual harassment perpetration for boys who experienced abuse and White adolescents with high sibling aggression. Academic grades moderated change in perpetration over time, but effects differed by sex and race. It is important to understand how early violence exposures relate to sexual violence perpetration during early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) experience higher rates of victimization by bullying than do their heterosexual-identified peers. In this article, we investigate the extent to which this difference in rates of victimization can explain LGBTQ youths' greater rates of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and unexcused absences from school. Our sample consisted of 11,337 students in Grades 7 through 12 from 30 schools in Dane County, Wisconsin. Using both multilevel covariate-adjusted models and propensity-score-matching models, we found that although victimization does explain a portion of the LGBTQ-heterosexual risk disparities, substantial differences persist "even when the differences in victimization are taken into account". For example, LGBTQ-identified students were 3.3 times as likely to think about suicide (p less than 0.0001), 3.0 times as likely to attempt suicide (p = 0.007), and 1.4 times as likely to skip school (p = 0.047) as propensity-score-matched heterosexual-identified students within the same school who reported equivalent levels of peer victimization. Moreover, in our propensity-score-matched samples, we found substantial differences in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts at both higher and lower levels of victimization. This consistent pattern of findings suggests that policies aimed simply at reducing bullying may not be effective in bringing LGBTQ youth to the level of their heterosexual peers in terms of psychological and educational outcomes. Additional policies may be needed to promote safe, supportive school environments. (Contains 14 notes, 2 tables and 1 figure.)

This article provides an ecological framework for understanding adolescent-initiated parent abuse. We review research on adolescent-initiated parent abuse, identifying sociodemographic characteristics of perpetrators and victims (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status [SES]). Bronfenbrenner's [1] ecological systems theory is applied, which examines the risk and protective factors for adolescent-initiated parent abuse within "micro"- (maltreatment, domestic violence, parenting behavior and disciplinary strategies), "meso"- (peer influence), "exo"- (media influence), "macro"- (gender role socialization), and "chronosystem" (change in family structure) levels. Findings from our review suggest that older and White children are significantly more likely to abuse their parents. Females are selective in the target of their aggression, while males target family members in general. Mothers are significantly more likely to be abused than fathers. However, researchers also report variations in the association between SES and parent abuse. Domestic violence and child maltreatment are risk factors, while findings on parenting behavior and disciplinary strategies are mixed. Peer influence, exposure to media violence, gender role socialization, and change in family structure can potentially increase the risk of parent abuse. Practice and research implications are also discussed. An ecological systems framework allows for an examination of how various contexts interact and influence parent abuse behavior, and can provide needed directions for further research.

Bullying has been recognized as a dynamic process, where involvement is based on interactions between an individual and the social-ecological factors related to the individual's environment.While involvement in bullying is not exclusive to one population of students, evidence suggests that students with disabilities are overrepresented within the bullying dynamic. However, few empirical studies have explored subgroup differences among this population of students. The current study examined rates of bullying involvement and the intersection of individual attributes among middle school students (n = 163) identified with specific disabilities and their peers without disabilities (n = 163). As hypothesized, students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) engaged in significantly higher levels of bullying and fighting than other subgroups of students. Additionally, higher levels of anger predicted higher levels of bully perpetration for students with EBD, where higher levels of victimization predicted higher levels of bully perpetration for students with disabilities other than EBD. These findings demonstrate the importance of recognizing the influence of the characteristic differences between subgroups of students with disabilities, and the unique influence these characteristics may have on student involvement within the bullying dynamic. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

This meta-analysis synthesized bullying prevention programs' effectiveness at increasing bystander intervention in bullying situations. Evidence from 12 school-based programs, involving 12,874 students, indicated that overall the programs were successful (Hedges's g = 0.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.11 to 0.29, p = 0.001), with larger effects for high school (HS) samples compared to kindergarten through eighth-grade (K-8) student samples (HS effect size [ES] = 0.43, K-8 ES = 0.14; p less than 0.05). A secondary synthesis from eight of the studies that reported empathy for the victim revealed treatment effectiveness that was positive but not significantly different from zero (g = 0.05, 95% CI = -0.07 to 0.17, p = 0.45). Nevertheless, this meta-analysis indicated that programs increased bystander intervention both on a practical and statistically significant level. These results suggest that researchers and school administrators should consider implementing programs that focus on bystander intervention behavior supplementary to bullying prevention programs. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Recognizing the negative outcomes associated with experiences in bullying at school, educational researchers, school officials, and policy-makers have called for more rigorous research on bullying in school. Research on bullying behavior in school has primarily been examined using quantitative methods. Mixed methods research in the field of education has gained ground in recent years. However, no systematic review of mixed methods studies on bullying and peer victimization has been conducted to date. The major focus of this article is to review empirical studies on bullying in schools using mixed methods. In particular, we examine research studies on bullying in schools within the contexts of "new insights," "complementary findings," and "divergent findings." Directions for conducting mixed methods research on bullying and peer victimization are also discussed.

This article examines major risk factors for suicide among sexual minority youth using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. Although suicidal behavior among sexual minority youth is a major public concern in the United States, understanding of this phenomenon has been limited since the majority of empirical research studies have addressed individual level characteristics without much consideration to the larger environmental contexts. This review integrates past and current empirical findings on suicidal behaviors of sexual minority youth within the context of "micro-", "meso-", "exo-", "macro-", and "chrono-"systems levels. Finally, it draws implications for assessment, prevention, and intervention strategies.

This study finds that, compared with straight-identified youth, youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, victimization by peers, and elevated levels of unexcused absences from school. Results disaggregated by LGBTQ subgroups reveal heterogeneity within the broad LGBTQ group, with bisexual youth appearing to be particularly at risk. Also, although the risk gaps in school belongingness and unexcused absences are significant in high school, we find that these gaps are significantly greater in middle school, suggesting heightened early risk for LGBTQ-identified students. By raising awareness of educational inequities related to LGBTQ identification, this study lays the descriptive groundwork for interventions aimed at improving psychological and educational outcomes for these students. (Contains 9 notes, 5 tables, and 4 figures.)

International research established over a decade ago that students who are enrolled in special education curricula are victimized and perpetrate more bullying than their general education peers. However, few empirical studies have examined bullying rates among American schoolchildren who receive special education services. In the current study, a sample of middle school students (n = 1009) enrolled in general and special education programs completed the University of Illinois bullying, fighting, and victimization scales. As hypothesized, students with disabilities reported higher rates of victimization and fighting behaviours than students without disabilities. Conversely, students with disabilities and their general education peers reported similar rates of bully perpetration. (Contains 3 tables.)

In this article, the authors review research on individual, peer, and school contributions that may be critical factors for enhancing efforts to address bullying among students. Methodological challenges are delineated, with an emphasis on how bullying is defined and assessed and the subsequent implications for bullying prevention and intervention program evaluation. The impact of school-based anti-bullying programs and the challenges currently facing educators and researchers in this area are discussed. The article concludes with a proposal for a broader, ecologically based model of school bullying based on the emerging literature. (Contains 1 note.)

This study tested a social-ecological model of adolescent substance use. Multilevel modeling was used to investigate how systems, such as parents, peers, schools, and communities, directly influence and interact together to influence adolescent substance use. Participants included 14,548 (50.3% female) middle school students who were 78.6% White, 5.4% Biracial, 4.8% Asian, 4.8% Black, and 3.6% Hispanic. Participants completed a survey with scales assessing substance use, peer influences, parental influences, and characteristics of their school and community. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to consider the variation of parental and peer influences on substance use and how schools and communities relate to both substance use and the relationship between substance use and peer and parental factors. Results indicated that a positive school climate and a positive sense of community were associated with less adolescent substance use and that a positive sense of community moderated the relation between peer and parental influence on adolescent substance use, thereby acting as a protective factor.

In this study, heterosexual students' willingness to remain friends with peers who disclose that they are gay or lesbian and their willingness to attend schools that include gay and lesbian students were examined among two large middle school and high school samples (Sample 1: n = 20,509; 50.7% girls; Sample 2: n = 16,917; 50.2% girls). Boys were less willing than girls to remain friends or attend schools with gay and lesbian peers, as were students in earlier grades than were students in later grades. Further, there was small, yet significant, variability in these scores across schools. Greater racial diversity within the school partially accounted for this school-level variability; students in more racially diverse schools reported greater willingness to remain friends and attend school with gay and lesbian peers. Findings suggest that while intervention programs must continue to address blatant and overt physical aggression against sexual minority youth, there is also a significant need for programming to address the more subtle expressions of sexual prejudice that contribute to unwelcoming and unsafe school climates.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual students (LGB) and those questioning their sexual orientation are often at great risk for negative outcomes like depression, suicidality, drug use, and school difficulties (Elliot and Kilpatrick, How to Stop Bullying, A KIDSCAPE Guide to Training, 1994; Mufoz-Plaza et al., High Sch J 85:52-63, 2002; Treadway and Yoakam, J School Health 62(7):352-357, 1992). This study examined how school contextual factors such as homophobic victimization and school climate influence negative outcomes in LGB and questioning middle school students. Participants were 7,376 7th and 8th grade students from a large Midwestern county (50.7% Female, 72.7% White, 7.7% Biracial, 6.9% Black, 5.2% Asian, 3.7% Hispanic, and 2.2% reported "other"). LGB and sexually questioning youth were more likely to report high levels of bullying, homophobic victimization, and various negative outcomes than heterosexual youth. Students who were questioning their sexual orientation reported the most bullying, the most homophobic victimization, the most drug use, the most feelings of depression and suicidality, and more truancy than either heterosexual or LGB students. A positive school climate and a lack of homophobic victimization moderated the differences among sexual orientation status and outcomes. Results indicate that schools have the ability to lessen negative outcomes for LGB and sexually questioning students through creating positive climates and reducing homophobic teasing.

This investigation tested a large adolescent sample (n = 14,439) for significant group differences on psychosocial concerns on the basis of intersecting identities of sexual orientation (lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning/less certain, heterosexual), race (Whites, racial minorities), and gender (boys, girls). A significant 2-way interaction between sexual orientation and gender was identified on victimization. Boys reported higher victimization than did girls among heterosexual and questioning/less certain students. Furthermore, significant 3-way interactions between sexual orientation, race, and gender were identified for substance use and depressed/suicidal thoughts. Questioning/less certain youth generally reported the highest levels of victimization, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts. However, results suggest that, on the basis of small effect sizes for most comparisons, significant differences should be interpreted with caution. Results indicate the need to consider the diversity of subgroups within the sexual minority youth community and that intervention efforts might be more effective if tailored to the unique needs of specific subgroups. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures and 2 footnotes.)

Bullying, aggression, and peer victimization among adolescents are significant public health concerns. Recent research has demonstrated that bullying and peer victimization sometimes include homophobic epithets directed at heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. It appears that being at the receiving end of homophobic banter generally contributes to worse outcomes among youth. This article highlights methodological issues in conducting research with LGBT youth, and stresses the importance of using theoretically and empirically supported definitions, including youth who are sexually questioning, focusing on multiple social and cultural contexts, and examining how support networks serve as buffering agents with regard to the effect of homophobic bullying on psychological outcomes.

Research indicates that social support plays a protective role among adolescents, but little research has explicitly evaluated its function among youth involved in bullying. Accordingly, this study examined relations among social support, bully/victim status, and psychological distress in a sample of 784 ethnically diverse youth. We assessed differences in perceived social support across bully/victim subtypes, and evaluated peer and maternal social support as protective factors among victims, bullies, and bully-victims. Youth were classified as uninvolved (61.6%), as bullies (14.3%), as victims (12.5%), and as bully-victims (11.6%). Uninvolved youth reported the most peer and maternal social support and the least anxiety/depression. Multivariate analyses revealed that there was a significant interaction between bully/victim groups and peer social support. Specifically, bullies, victims, and bully-victims who reported moderate peer social support also indicated the least anxiety/depression. Results highlight the importance of encouraging youth to develop and effectively use peer support networks as part of bullying intervention programs.

Differences between proactive and reactive aggression subtypes on self-reported measures of empathy, social competence, and expectation for reward were examined among 433 middle school students (65.4% White, 33.9% Black). As hypothesized, males scored higher on proactive and reactive aggression scales and lower on empathy measures than females. "K"-means cluster analysis yielded the following four distinct groups: reactive, proactive, proactive/reactive aggressive, and uninvolved. Overall, uninvolved (nonaggressive youth) had higher empathy and social competence scores and lower expectation of reward for the use of aggression. The reactive and proactive groups did not differ significantly on study variables. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Associations among bullying, peer victimization, sexual harassment, and dating violence were examined among 684 middle and high school students. Cluster analysis of self-report measures revealed four distinct bully-victim subtypes: uninvolved, victims, bully-victims, and bullies. African-American students comprised the bully cluster more than White students, but did not report higher rates of dating violence or peer sexual harassment. Bully-victims reported significantly more physical dating violence victimization than members of all other groups, and more emotional abuse in dating relationships than uninvolved students and victims. Bully-victims and victims also reported the highest amount of peer sexual harassment. Anxiety/depression levels were highest among victims and bully-victims. Sexual harassment and dating violence experiences moderated the association between bully-victim subtype and anxiety/depression. That is, victims with the highest levels of sexual harassment and victims and bully-victims with the highest levels of dating violence reported the highest levels of anxiety/depression. Findings highlight the high-risk nature of the bully-victim group and the importance of assessing multiple forms of victimization affecting youth.

During adolescence, friendship affiliations and groups provide companionship and social and emotional support, and they afford opportunities for intimate self-disclosure and reflection. Friendships often promote positive psychosocial development, but some youth learn and adopt antisocial attitudes and deviant behaviors through their friendships. Clearly peers matter, but can the monolith of peer group effects be deconstructed in a way that advances theories of peer influence? In this study, the authors use p* modeling to explore connections between network structures and social influence in a seventh-grade friendship network. Specifically, p* parameters reveal how bullying perpetration, dyads, triads, and more complex group structures contribute to network formation, providing fine-level detail about the operation of internal peer group structures. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

This investigation examined the extent to which homophobic victimization predicted multiple indicators of psychological and social distress for middle school students (n = 143) during a 1-year assessment period. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that homophobic victimization significantly predicted increased anxiety and depression, personal distress, and lower sense of school belonging in males and higher levels of withdrawal in females after controlling for previously reported levels of each variable. Results suggest that being the target of homophobic victimization has significant psychological and social consequences for students, although differentially for males and females. Although use of such content may occur within peer groups and appear to be harmless banter between friends, teachers and administrators should intervene during these occurrences, and school policies and programming should specifically address and seek to decrease this social problem. (Contains 3 tables.)