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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 study examined the associations between bullying victimization and mental health and academic performance outcomes. This study also examined the indirect effect of academic performance on the association between bullying victimization and mental health. Participants included 676 secondary school students from the Southeast region of the USA. Using multi-group path analysis, results revealed that traditional victimization was positively associated with mental health difficulties for both boys and girls. Further, both traditional and cyber victimization were negatively associated with academic performance for girls only. Finally, results indicated that the indirect effect of academic performance on the association between traditional and cyber victimization and mental health was only significant for girls. Findings from this study highlight gender differences in bullying victimization outcomes. Implications for researchers, such as suggestions for future bullying intervention programs, are discussed.

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.

This study aimed to extend the literature by examining how bystander intervention (i.e. when a witness to a bullying episodes does something to address the situation) varies with respect to the type of bystander intervention (i.e. direct intervention, emotional intervention, involving an adult, ignore) across victim status (friend, unknown), intervener age (elementary, high school), and dimensions of empathy (affective, cognitive) in the intervener. Given substantive differences in both empathy (especially cognitive empathy) and bystander intervention when comparing children to older adolescents, the association between empathy and intervening may differ across age groups. Self-report survey data were collected from 370 racially diverse participants in grades 3-5 ; (n = 158) and grades 9-12 (n = 212) in the southeastern area of the United States. Multi-group path analysis was conducted. Results varied by intervener age, type of intervention, and type of empathy. Affective empathy for high school students was not related to intervention at all, but affective empathy for elementary students was related to emotional intervention. For both age groups, cognitive empathy was related to emotional intervention and reporting to adults for all unknown victims, as well as for known victims in high school students. For known victims, no clear pattern emerged for age groups and how empathy was associated with each type of intervention. Overall, the findings suggest that bystander intervention in bullying is not a "one size fits all" behavior. Bystander intervention programs for bullying should provide more nuanced training regarding types of interventions and encourage empathy and action for both known and unknown victims.

A considerable number of children and adolescents suffer from mental health difficulties, yet a much smaller percentage of these students receive mental health services. Given the amount of time that youth spend at school, being able to offer mental health services at school is a logical solution. In this paper we present an innovative idea for increasing mental health services in schools through partnering with behavioral health training programs, such as social work, counseling, and psychology. The mutually beneficial nature of these partnerships is described and a framework for deciding what services are needed is offered. The article ends with a detailed analysis of logistical challenges and decisions regarding identifying potential clients, supervision, curriculum, scheduling, funding, confidentiality and records, competence, and consent.

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.

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 = -0.37, p = 0.05), 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.

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 "alone" to 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.

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.

Objective: Some children and adolescents who have experienced bullying victimization may also be perpetrators, while others may defend their peers, although moderators of these relationships have rarely been examined. The present study examined the potential moderating effects of affective and cognitive empathy in the relationship between bullying victimization and perpetration and defending. Method: A sample of 788 students from two high schools in a suburban school district in the Northeastern United States (M = 15.5 years old, 80.2% White) participated in this cross-sectional study and completed measures assessing the bullying participant behaviors of bully, victim, and defender and a measure of empathy (cognitive and affective components). The Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire was used to assess participant roles in bullying behavior. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used as a measure of empathy. Results: Path analysis indicated that bullying victimization was associated with higher levels of both verbal bullying perpetration and defending, but affective empathy moderated these relationships. As affective empathy increased, the relationship between victimization and perpetration became less pronounced, and the relationship between victimization and defending became more pronounced. Conclusions: These findings contribute to our current understanding of bully-victims and victim–defenders. The present study expands upon the literature and indicates that empathy training could be a useful way to increase bystander intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 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.

Perceptions 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.

The goal of this study was to examine the indirect effect of protective factors (i.e., resilience, coping, and self-esteem) on the association between exposure to traumatic events in childhood and internalizing difficulties for men and women. We surveyed 583 young adults aged 18 to 25 years about past exposure to traumatic events and current internalizing difficulties. The results suggest that there is a significant indirect effect of protective factors on the association between lifetime traumatic event exposure and internalizing distress. Furthermore, there was a gender difference between groups for the indirect effect of protective factors; protective factors had a mediating effect for women but not for men. This study highlights the importance of protective factors in understanding why some individuals experience internalizing difficulties after exposure to traumatic events. When working with victims of traumatic events, it is essential to consider their sex and the presence of protective factors such as coping, resilience, and self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Multidimensional Teacher Victimization Scale (MTVS) was developed to provide schools with a comprehensive and psychometrically sound self-report scale to assess teachers' perceptions of teacher-targeted aggressive and violent behaviors perpetrated by students. Using a cross-sectional survey-based research design, data were collected on a sample of 1,711 teachers (seventh to twelfth grade) from 58 schools in China. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that a second-order model with one general Teacher Victimization (TV) factor and six lower-order factors (i.e., Physical TV, Social TV, Verbal TV, Cyber TV, Sexual Harassment, and Personal Property Offenses) best represented the data. Measurement invariance tests showed that the scale's factor structure was consistent across middle and high schools and across gender. Latent mean comparisons suggested that similar levels of teacher victimization were reported across male and female teachers and across middle school and high school teachers. As evidence of the scale's concurrent validity, the total teacher victimization score correlated significantly with teachers' self-reported total burnout score and 3 subscale scores, including emotional exhaustion, accomplishment, and depersonalization. Adequate internal consistency reliability and test--retest reliability were achieved in both the total scale and subscales. Implications for using MTVS as a school-wide violence assessment tool in Chinese schools and other cultural groups are discussed.

The Bystander Intervention Model proposed by social psychologists Latané and Darley has been used to examine the actions of peer bystanders in bullying. The five-stage model consists of notice the event, interpret event as an emergency, accept responsibility for intervening, know how to intervene, and implement intervention decisions. The current study examined associations among gender, social skills, and the bystander intervention model among 299 sixth- to eighth-grade students. Analyses revealed that girls reported significantly greater cooperation and empathy, and noticed bullying events, interpreted them as an emergency, and intervened more often than boys. The best fitting structural equation model included both empathy and cooperation, with significant positive path coefficients between empathy and bystander intervention. Students with greater empathy were more likely to engage with each step of the model, except noticing the event. Assertiveness was positively associated and cooperation was negatively associated with greater knowledge of how to intervene.

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.

Bullying is a prevalent issue in schools, and the importance of involving bystanders in bullying prevention has been recognized; however, there are few studies that examine personal characteristics that relate to the five steps of Latané and Darley's (1970) Bystander Intervention Model (notice the event, interpret as an emergency, accept responsibility, know what to do, and act). This study examined cognitive and affective empathy and perceived popularity and their relation to each of the five steps of the Bystander Intervention Model in Bullying (Nickerson, Aloe, Livingston, & Feeley, 2014), as well as explored if gender changed those relations. With a sample of 346 sixth to eighth grade students, we found a negative relation between perceived popularity and noticing bullying events. For boys, higher affective empathy was associated with a greater likelihood of interpreting bullying as an emergency and accepting responsibility for intervening, but for girls, their perception of bullying as an emergency and accepting responsibility was stable regardless of their level of affective empathy.

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the relations among personality traits, coping styles, and disclosure, controlling for demographic characteristics, with sexually victimized college students. There were 117 participants, ranging from 18 to 28 years of age. Data were collected via self-reported surveys. Results showed ethnicity and openness significantly predicted engagement coping, while sexual orientation and neuroticism significantly predicted disengagement coping. Gender significantly predicted informal disclosure, while none of the variables in the study significantly predicted formal disclosure. Disengagement coping partially moderated the association between both agreeableness and openness and disclosure. Engagement coping partially moderated the association between openness and disclosure. Colleges should provide counseling centers and victim advocate offices with resources that can be used to support victims of sexual victimization to increase appropriate coping skills and increase the likelihood for disclosure, recommendations for future studies are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying is a process of direct (i.e., youth who bully and are victimized) and indirect (i.e., bystanders) social exchanges. Though researchers often examine social and emotional correlates of bullying role behaviors, it is important to also consider the underlying cognitive processes associated with different bullying roles such as socially oriented cognitive processes associated with executive functions. The goal of the current study was to examine executive functions associated with types of bullying role behavior (aggression, victimization, defending, assisting, and outsider behavior) and differences between boys and girls within a sample of 689 third- to eighth-grade students (51% male, 49% female). Victimization was significantly and negatively associated with each executive function. Defending was positively associated with emotion regulation for upper elementary school students, but not for middle school students. Outsider behavior was significantly and negatively associated with self-monitoring, flexibility, and initiation.

Adolescent stressors coupled with environmental demands, such as pressures to achieve, might lead to negative outcomes for some students. Students who worry about their ability to meet high standards might be more at risk of internalizing problems. The current study investigated the relations among perfectionism, social support, and internalizing problems of middle school students (N = 169). Research has established perfectionism as having maladaptive and adaptive traits. Regression analyses indicated that maladaptive perfectionism was positively related, while adaptive perfectionism was negatively related, to anxiety and depression. Adaptive perfectionists reported significantly higher levels of teacher support than maladaptive perfectionists and nonperfectionists and higher levels of classmate support than nonperfectionists. In addition, classmate support for girls and boys, and teacher support for boys, were found to buffer the relation between maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety and depression. Future research should examine social support and perfectionism and how to best provide support to maladaptive perfectionists.

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.

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.

The situational model of bystander behavior is a validated 5‐step process for understanding intervention in bullying and sexual harassment, yet the individual‐level and contextual‐level factors that facilitate the progression from one step to the next are not well understood. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether individual characteristics (social‐emotional skills, affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and personal attitudes toward bullying and sexual harassment) and contextual‐level factors (school climate and perceived peer attitudes toward bullying and sexual harassment) explained the association between subsequent steps of the bystander intervention model. A sample of 788 high school students completed several validated measures of these constructs. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that each step significantly and positively predicted the next step, and the addition of a direct path from accepting responsibility to helping improved model fit. The mediational model indicated that individual‐level characteristics had significant direct effects on interpreting bullying and sexual harassment as problems, accepting responsibility, and helping, and indirect effects from noticing the bullying and sexual harassment to all subsequent steps except knowing. In contrast, contextual‐level effects contributed to accepting responsibility in an inverse direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]