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Adolescent bullying victimization can have long-term mental health and well-being outcomes. This study focused on the potential mediating role of the perceived long-term negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization to understand its relations with mental health and well-being problems during emerging adulthood. A retrospective study consisting of closed and open-ended questions was conducted among 1010 Flemish and 650 Dutch emerging adults aged 18-26. Path analyses among early victims (N-Flemish = 644; N-Dutch = 217) demonstrated that the relations between bullying victimization intensity and current self-esteem, social interaction anxiety, and life satisfaction were all mediated by the perceived negative long-term impact of adolescent bullying victimization. Additionally, the open-ended questions provided a better understanding of the perceived negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization. The present study offers insights into the importance of considering subjective perceptions of the overall impact of being bullied to understand long-term bullying victimization outcomes. Implications and limitations are discussed, including the need for longitudinal data-for instance, a three-wave panel study-to establish the temporal order of effects.

The present study aimed at giving voice to students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds using a co-participatory approach. Participants were 59 adolescents (52.5% males) aged between 14 and 16 from five European countries who created ten comics to illustrate cyberbullying for a broader audience of peers. We analyzed texts and images according to four primary themes: cyberbullying episodes (types, platforms, co-occurrence with bullying), coping strategies, characters (roles, gender, and group membership), and emotions. The content analysis showed that online denigration on social media platforms was widely represented and that cyberbullying co-existed with bullying. Social strategies were frequently combined with passive and confrontational coping, up to suicide. All roles (cyberbully, cybervictim, bystander, reinforcer, defender) were portrayed among the 154 characters identified, even if victims and defenders appeared in the vignettes more often. Males, females, peers, and adults were represented in all roles. Among the 87 emotions detected, sadness was the most frequently expressed, followed by joy, surprise, anger, and fear. Emotions, mainly represented by drawings or drawings with text, were most often represented in association with cybervictims. The results are discussed in terms of their methodological and practical implications, as they emphasize the importance of valorizing young peoples’ voices in research and interventions against cyberbullying.

Background: Bias-based bullying is a serious phenomenon having a negative impact on the well-being of children with socially devaluated identities or attributes. Driven by social-cognitive factors of stigma, intergroup theories and strategies are needed to tackle this form of bullying. The aim of the GATE-BULL project was to develop and evaluate a serious game and classroom lesson plan to encourage bystander intervention in weight-, ethnicity-, and religion-based bullying situations.Methods: The intervention was a 4-week school-based intervention targeted at 9–13-year-olds tested using a quasi-experimental design. In total, 578 children from The Netherlands, Scotland and Greece were included in analyses. Measures on self-efficacy and intention were self-construed; measures on intergroup anxiety and attitudes, moral disengagement, and peer norms were adapted from other research. Hypotheses were tested using MRA.Findings: Results of The Netherlands show that children in the intervention group reported a more positive peer norm (p=.048, d=0.40); minority children reported higher confidence to defend other minority children (p=.010, d=0.65); and majority children reported to be less anxious towards Muslim children (p=.037, d=0.41). In Scotland, children reported higher intention to defend overweight children (p=.01, d=.25). In Greece, no effects were found.Discussion: The intervention was received well by teachers and children and had some important effects on determinants of bystander behavior. The intervention was less effective in Scotland and Greece, which could be attributed to only white schools being included in the trial. The intervention shows much potential in setting a more inclusive classroom norm. However, additional research is recommended.GATE-BULL: Using a GAmes approach to TEach children about prejudice-based BULLying

Digital communication technologies play an important role in the social development of young people, but can create vulnerabilities to cyberbullying and other negative online experiences. The Blurred Lives project aimed to tackle cyber-bullying innovatively using a co-participatory approach, col-laborating with 14–16-year olds living in areas of socio- economic disadvantage in five European countries. In phase one, 2,658 teenagers were surveyed on their internet use and any unpleasant online experiences. This data informed the second phase where the participating countries worked together with 237 adolescents across 10 schools with adult facilitators to create original anti-cyberbullying resources for teachers, parents/carers, peers, and social media providers using the Quality Circle approach. This methodology adopts an ethos of working together to solve a problem in small, peer-led groups. Each group was tasked with creating a resource for one of the target audience groups. The final resources comprise a rich variety of different formats includ-ing videos, comic strips, a board game, leaflets, posters, and newsletters. The pupil feedback highlights, for most but not all participants, an increased knowledge of cyberbullying and e-safety skills, as well as enhanced problem-solving skills, levels of confidence, and group work skills. Several opera-tional challenges are also discussed, including the impor-tance of school-level support, planning, staffing, and finding an appropriate balance between facilitator support and pupil agency.

Because of the negative effects of cyberbullying, and because of its unique characteristics, interventions to stop cyberbullying are needed. For this purpose, more insightful information is needed about cyberbullying victims’ (i.e., the target group) experiences, perceptions, attitudes and motivations related to (coping with) cyberbullying. Five schools with 66 low-educated Dutch adolescents between 12 and 15 (53% female) participated in 10 focus group interviews. Results show that victims do not perceive all behaviors as cyberbullying and traditional bullying is generally perceived as worse than cyberbullying. Cyberbullies are perceived as sad, cowards and embarrassing themselves. Victims are perceived as easy targets, they wear strange clothes, act in a provocative manner and have a bad appearance. These perceptions often depend on context, the level of anonymity, being in a fight or not, the person sending the message and his/her behavior. Further, victims reacted to cyberbullying by acting nonchalant, by not actually saying anything and seeking help from others (i.e., parents are not often asked for help because they do not want to bother them, fear of restricted Internet privileges). It can be concluded that asking cyberbullying victims about their experiences in an open manner, and allowing them to discuss these experiences, likely results in new and insightful information compared to using self-reports. In this questioning the perception of adolescents is key to see what is perceived as cyberbullying.

Coping may explain why being cyberbullied affects children’s well-being differently, though previous studies are inconclusive. This survey among 325 children focused on the role coping strategies may play in the relationship between cyberbullying and depressive feelings and health complaints. Being cyberbullied was measured with the Cyberbullying Questionnaire, general coping with the Utrecht Coping List, and cyberbullying-specific coping with a questionnaire developed for this study. Health complaints were measured with the Short Questionnaire for Experienced Health and depressive feelings with the shortened Children’s Depression Inventory. The results showed that 18.8% of the children were bullied by mobile phone and 24.1% through the internet. Correlation analyses showed strong relationships between victimization, coping, depressive feelings, and health complaints. In the regression analyses conducted in all children, victimization, general emotion-focused, and problem-focused copings had main effects on depressive feelings and health complaints; emotion-focused coping interacted with victimization in health complaints. Simple slope analyses of children with high scores on emotion-focused general coping showed a stronger positive relationship between victimization and health complaints. Regression analyses of only cyberbullied children showed that only emotion-focused cyber-specific coping was associated with more health complaints and depressive feelings.

This study investigated the relationship between the use of coping strategies to deal with daily stressors in general (n = 325) and the use of coping strategies to deal with cyberbullying in particular (n = 88) among children aged 11 and 12 years. Additionally, it investigated the impact of coping strategies on depression and health in victims of cyberbullying (n = 88). The results showed that victims differed significantly from bully-victims (i.e. victims that also bully) and from children not involved in cyberbullying, in that they use certain emotion-focused coping strategies for daily stressors in general more than others. Additionally, this study investigated among victims of cyberbullying the relation between coping strategies in daily life, cyberspecific coping, depressive feelings and health complaints. Coping through emotional expression, avoidance and depressive coping in daily life will lead to more cyberspecific depressive coping when confronted with cyberbullying. This in turn will lead to more depressive feelings and/or health complaints for victims of cyberbullying. These results stress the importance of teaching children how to stand up for themselves and employ effective coping strategies to deal with stress in daily life in general and to deal with cyberbullying in particular. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en

This study examined the effect of prepayment gas meters (households pay for their gas as they use it) as a feedback instrument on gas consumption by households. Furthermore, behavioral determinants of the reduction in gas consumption were studied. Half of the households in the experimental group were issued a notebook allowing them to compare their gas consumption with a self-set goal. The results revealed that households with a prepayment meter reduced their annual gas consumption by 4.1% compared with the control group; the notebook did not result in additional savings. Furthermore, changes in objective gas consumption were related to self-reported changes in intention toward reducing consumption.

The main purpose of the study presented here was to assess the capacity of the innovation attributes proposed in Rogers' diffusion theory (1995) to predict the intention to adopt energy conservation interventions. It also provided a first test of some refinements to Rogers' theory, proposed by Darley and Beniger (1981). Furthermore, as an elaboration of diffusion theory, this study examined whether the assessment of innovation attributes is a stepwise process. Questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were used to collect data. Results indicate that perceived compatibility is a general and important predictor of the intention to adopt energy conservation interventions. Support was found for some of the refinements to diffusion theory proposed by Darley and Beniger (1981). Moreover, the study partly confirmed the idea that the evaluation of an innovation on its attributes is a stepwise process. For two of the four energy conservation interventions it was found that the intervention was first of all judged on its advantage. If the perceived advantage was minor, a potential adopter often decided to reject an innovation solely on the basis of this assessment. If the perceived advantage was high, the evaluation process usually continued; perceived compatibility then became the second evaluation criterion. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The study's aim was to obtain an overview of all relevant variables involved in ineffective coping behavior and improvement in coping behavior as it pertains to cyberbullying among adolescents, in order to systematically develop a theory- and evidence-based intervention. This was done by means of a three round online Delphi study. First, 20 key experts listed possible relevant determinants. Next, 70 experts scored these determinants on their relevance and finally, experts rerated relevance of each determinant based on group median scores. The experts agreed that 115 items are relevant for ineffective (62) or improvement in (53) coping behavior. New found determinants were the extent to which one can adjust behavior upon feedback, impulsivity, self-confidence, communication style, personality, decision-making skills, conflict resolution skills, previous participation in personal resilience training, social relationships, rumors and self-disclosure. We conclude that the Delphi technique is useful in discovering new and relevant determinants of behavior.

The purpose of this article is to give an integrative insight into the theoretical and empirical-based development of the Online Pestkoppenstoppen (Stop Bullies Online/Stop Online Bullies). This intervention aims to reduce the number of cyberbully victims and their symptoms of depression and anxiety (program goal), by teaching cyberbully victims how to cope in an adequate and effective manner with cyberbully incidents (program’s outcomes). In developing the program the different steps of the Intervention Mapping protocol are systematically used. In this article we describe each step of Intervention Mapping. Sources used for the development were a literature review, a Delphi study among experts, focus group interviews with the target group, and elements from a proven effective anti-bullying program. The result is a fully automated web-based tailored intervention for cyberbully victims (12-15 years) consisting of three web-based advice sessions delivered over three months. The first advice aims to teach participants how behavior is influenced by the thoughts they have, how to recognize and dispute irrational thoughts and how to form rational thoughts. In the second advice, participants will learn about the way bullying emerges, how their behavior influences bullying and how they can use effective coping strategies in order to stop (online) bullying. In the third advice, participants receive feedback and will learn how to use the Internet and mobile phones in a safe manner. Each advice is tailored to the participant’s personal characteristics (e.g., personality, self-efficacy, coping strategies used and (ir)rational thoughts). To ensure implementation of the program after testing it for effectiveness, the intervention was pretested in the target-population and an implementation plan was designed. Finally, we will elaborate on the planned randomized controlled trial in which the intervention will be compared to a general information group and waiting list control group. This evaluation will provide insight into the intervention’s efficacy to reduce cyberbullying and its negative effects. Intervention Mapping is a time consuming but profound way to ensure that each step of developing an intervention is taken, and resulted in three web-based tailored pieces of advices that teach adolescents how to cope more effectively with cyberbullying experiences. NTR3613 , 14-09-2012

Objective To study whether pregnancy-related lumbopelvic pain outcomes at 36 weeks of gestation can be predicted by psychological determinants earlier in pregnancy. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Nine midwifery practices in different regions of the Netherlands. Population A cohort of 223 low-risk pregnant women in the Netherlands was followed from week 12 of gestation until 36 weeks of gestation. Methods Both psychological determinants and lumbopelvic pain symptoms were investigated with a set of questionnaires at 12, 24 and 36 weeks of gestation. Psychological determinants were measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90), the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Questionnaire (PRAQ), and the Utrecht Coping List (UCL). Lumbopelvic pain outcomes were measured with the Pregnancy Mobility Index (PMI) and the Overall Complaints Index (OCI). Main outcome measures Lumbopelvic pain symptoms and their impact at 36 weeks of gestation. Results There was a significant increase in scores on both the PMI and OCI across the three sampling occasions in pregnancy. Lumbopelvic pain outcomes showed significant associations with the psychological determinants perceived stress and recently perceived psychological and physical distress at all three times during pregnancy. Pregnancy-related anxiety was not a significant predictor of lumbopelvic pain outcomes, neither was coping. Conclusions Lumbopelvic pain symptoms and their impact on daily activities at 36 weeks of gestation can be predicted by psychological determinants earlier in pregnancy; the combination of perceived stress and physical disability at 24 weeks of pregnancy seems to be the best predictor of disability in later pregnancy.

This study investigated bullying in the workplace. More specifically, it explored the mental and physical health consequences of being bullied in the workplace and the role of coping as a moderating variable among 361 people living in the Netherlands who, at the time of the study, were employed for at least eight hours a week in an organization where they have both colleagues and a manager. Of these 361 employees, 139 (39%) reported having experienced at least one form of bullying listed in the questionnaire at least once a month and 64 (18%) reported having experienced at least one form of bullying once a week. Employees reporting weekly bullying also reported more health problems and poorer well-being, and were more frequently absent from work, than employees who reported monthly bullying or no bullying at all. Those who had been bullied on a weekly basis were also more inclined to cope with problems via compensation than those who were not bullied. The coping strategies of compensation, denial, and the adoption of an active positive attitude toward problem situations were found to moderate the relationship between being bullied, on the one hand, and health problems, well-being, and absenteeism, on the other. Unfortunately, these coping strategies as a response to being bullied have a detrimental effect on bullied individuals’ health and well-being, and are related to increased absenteeism. Additionally, negative organizational and leadership characteristics were found to be associated with bullying experiences at work.

Objective To explain adherence to prophylactic asthma medication (PAM, inhaled corticosteroids) by the attitude, social influence, and self-efficacy (ASE) model added with the concept of habit strength and to study whether habit moderates or mediates relationships between ASE factors and adherence. Methods A mail-out survey was conducted among 139 asthmatic adults. Multiple regression analysis was conducted, with self-reported adherence as the outcome and ASE factors and habit as the independent variables. Simple slope analyses and bootstrapping mediation analyses were also conducted. Results Having more severe asthma, taking PAM habitually, and perceiving few negative consequences of taking PAM were associated with better adherence. Self-efficacy influenced adherence indirectly through habit. The relationship between social norms and adherence was moderated by habit: In the case of weak habits, a supportive norm in a patient's environment toward taking PAM was positively related to PAM adherence; in the case of strong habits, a supportive norm led to less adherence. Conclusion Interventions to increase adherence should enhance the formation of habits by stimulating patients to perform the behavior frequently in similar situations by increasing self-efficacy and providing environmental cues, such as reminder devices and pill organizers. In addition, the disadvantages of PAM use should be negated.

Objective: The present study examined the relation of cognitive and emotional representations of illness specified by the Common Sense Model of Illness Cognition (Handbook of Psychology and Health: Social Psychological Aspects of Health. Earlbaum, Hillsdale: New York, 1984; 219–252) with the coping strategies and perceived health of patients who were treated for breast cancer. Methods: Participants were 119 women within 2 years after their diagnosis of breast cancer, who completed a questionnaire containing measures of illness representations, coping strategies and perceived physical and mental health. Results: Breast cancer patients differ in the subjective perception of their disease. Patients who view their illness as a condition with serious symptoms and consequences, patients who believe their illness is chronic and patients who consider their illness uncontrollable were found to report worse physical and mental health than those who believed the opposite. Regression analysis showed that, after controlling for external variables, the cognitive illness representations identity and consequences explained 57% of variance in physical health, whereas emotional illness representation and treatment control explained 47% of variance in mental health. Conclusion: Results provide some support for the hypotheses of the Common Sense Model of Illness Cognition. Illness representations seem to play an important role in perceived health in breast cancer. The implications of these findings for the design of health-care-related interventions for breast cancer patients are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bullying at work: the relation with health en absenteeism and the role of coping Bullying at work: the relation with health en absenteeism and the role of coping F. Dehue, C. Bolman, T. Völlink & M. Pouwelse, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 20, June 2009, nr. 2, pp. 97-117 In this study, the influence of coping on the relation between bullying experiences at work and health complaints and absenteeism has been investigated. One thousand randomly chosen employees received a questionnaire which was completed and returned by 361 employees. Results revealed that 139 employees (39%) were bullied at least once a month and 64 employees (18%) at least once a week on at least one of the bullying experiences listed in the questionnaire. Employees who have been bullied weekly, report more health complaints and were absent during more days than employees who have been bullied monthly or who have not been bullied at all. They are also more often inclined to compensate as a means of coping with problematic situations. Compensating and a positive active attitude towards problematic situations are coping strategies which moderate the relation between bullying experiences and health complaints and absenteeism. However, using these coping strategies as a response to bullying experiences is detrimental to one's health and supports absenteeism, just as negative organizational and leadership aspects, which are also associated with bullying experiences.