Main and Moderated Effects of Moral Cognition and Status on Bullying and Defending

This study analyzed the relations of two dimensions of moral cognition (i.e., acceptance of moral transgression and moral disengagement) and two forms of status in the peer group (i.e., social preference and perceived popularity) with bullying and defending among 235 primary‐school children and 305 middle‐school early adolescents. Social status was tested as a moderator of the associations between moral cognition and bullying and defending. Participants completed self‐reports assessing the two dimensions of moral cognition and peer nominations for status, bullying, and defending. Both acceptance of moral transgression and moral disengagement were associated to bullying among early adolescents only, whereas in childhood moral disengagement was linked to defending among girls. Social status moderated the associations between morality dimensions and bullying and defending. The moderating effects of status were discussed considering status as a magnifying lens for the relations between individual characteristics and social behavior. The results were also discussed with reference to age and gender differences in the associations. Aggr. Behav. 38:456‐468, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Prosocial children,bullies and victims: An investigation of their sociometric status,empathy and social problem‐solving strategies

This study investigates links between children's social behaviour and their sociometric status, empathy and social problem‐solving strategies. Sociometric ratings were obtained from a sample of 131 9–10‐year‐old children drawn from two matched schools. Each child also completed a newly developed and empirically derived Social Behaviour Questionnaire. This questionnaire led to the identification of 21 prosocial children, 23 bullies and 14 victims of bullying. Children in these subgroups were then assessed on measures of empathy and social problem‐solving. Prosocial children were significantly more popular than the other role groups, and bully‐victims were most frequently rejected by their peers. Prosocial children also showed greater empathic awareness than either bullies or victims, but gender was the significant source of variance. Prosocial children and victims responded more constructively than did bullies to socially awkward situations, and bullies were less aware than prosocial children of the possible negative consequences of their solution strategies.     

Behavior Problems and Peer Rejection in Preschool Boys and Girls

The authors tested the hypothesis that deviant behaviors within a preschool peer group would be linked with peer rejection, irrespective of child gender. Seventy-six children, aged 3 to 5 years, participated. Teachers rated children's behavior on the Child Adaptive Behavior Inventory, and children provided sociometric ratings. For a subsample of children (n = 47), observers coded aggressive, noncompliant, and withdrawn behavior using a time-sampling system. For both boys and girls, noncompliance, hyperactivity, and social withdrawal were associated with peer rejection; overt aggression was associated with peer rejection for boys, but not for girls. Analysis revealed that approximately half of the variance in sociometric and teacher ratings of peer rejection was accounted for by aggression and social withdrawal for both boys and girls. The results suggest that the association between behavior problems and peer rejection emerges at a very early age.     

Maternal Agreeableness Moderates Associations Between Young Children's Emotion Dysregulation and Socioemotional Functioning at School

The goal of this study was to explore associations among maternal agreeableness, child temperament (i.e., emotion dysregulation), and children's social adjustment at school. Participants were 146 children in kindergarten and Grade 1 (76 girls; M_age = 67.78 months, SD = 10.81 months). Mothers provided ratings of their own agreeableness and their child's temperament, and teachers assessed indices of children's socioemotional functioning at school. Among the results, maternal agreeableness moderated associations between child dysregulation and aspects of adjustment at school. Specifically, at higher levels of maternal agreeableness, the relations between child dysregulation and both anxiety with peers and their prosocial behavior were attenuated. Overall, the results suggest that maternal agreeableness may serve as a protective factor for dysregulated children. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Disability,poverty, and other risk factors associated with involvement in bullying behaviors

Using a stigma-based bullying framework, the current study investigated how (a) disability status was related to bullying-related behaviors when controlling for gender, grade level, and free or reduced lunch status; (b) gender, grade level, and free or reduced lunch status moderated the associations of disability status with bullying-related behaviors; and (c) classification in specific disability categories was associated with bullying-related behaviors with a sample of 10,483 students (47.8% female) in elementary, middle, and high school. School records data were collected on grade level, gender, free or reduced lunch price status, disability status, and disability category. Students completed the Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire (BPBQ), rating five types of bully role behaviors (bullying behavior, assistant behavior, victimization, defending behavior, and outsider behavior). Findings indicated that having a disability was associated with increased victimization, assisting, and defending behavior. Furthermore, disability status interacted in meaningful ways with several demographic factors: (a) females with a disability reported more victimization and reported engaging in more outsider behaviors than females without a disability, (b) elementary students with a disability reported more assisting and less defending behaviors than those without a disability, (c) high school students with a disability reported less bullying and assisting behaviors and more defending behaviors than those without a disability, and (d) students with a disability from low socioeconomic backgrounds reported more bullying and outsider behaviors than students not from lower socioeconomic family backgrounds. When comparing students from specific disability categories to those with no disability, students with an emotional disability reported more assisting, victimization, and outsider behaviors; students with other health impairment reported more assisting, victimization, and defending; students with autism reported less defending and outsider behaviors; and students with a learning disability reported more defending behavior. Exploratory analyses of the effects of school-level factors found that school size (enrollment) was positively related to prevalence of assisting and outsider behavior. The percentage of low-income students in a school was positively associated with the extent of victimization and defending behaviors reported, but negatively associated with the extent of outsider behaviors reported.     

Sex typing in play and popularity in middle childhood

Sex differences in play behavior across the early elementary school years as well as the relation between sex-typed play and peer acceptance were examined. It was hypothesized that children who were more sex-typed in their play behaviors would be more accepted by their peers. The participants included 86 grade two children and 81 grade four children. Popularity was assessed using a rating scale sociometric measure. Sex-typed behaviors were measured by observing the children at free play. Results indicated significant age and gender differences in children's play behavior. Specifically, boys engaged in more aggressive and rough and tumble play as well as more functional, solitary-dramatic and exploratory play and tended to be involved more in group play, whereas girls produced more parallel and constructive play as well as more peer conversations. In grade 4, these differences were maximized such that boys produced more games-with-rules and girls exhibited more parallel-constructive activity. Second, results indicated that sociometric ratings and observed degree of sex-typing were not significantly related except in the case of fourth grade males. At the fourth grade level, a positive relation was observed between boys' acceptance by male peers and “masculine” or male-preferred play behavior as well as between boys' acceptance by female peers and “feminine” or female-preferred play.     

Gender differences in the assessment, stability, and correlates to bullying roles in middle school children

The current study investigated bullying behaviors in 284 school children in the fourth through seventh grades at the time of the initial assessment. Peer ratings of bullying behavior were obtained at the end of the spring semester of one school year and at the end of the fall semester of the next school year. Importantly, peer ratings were obtained by assessing not only the level at which participants actually bully other students but also whether participants help bullies to hurt the victim (assister), encourage bullies (reinforce), or help the victim of bullying (defender). Our results did not support the utility of differentiating between bullies, assisters, or reinforcers. Specifically, these bullying roles were highly intercorrelated, both concurrently and across school years, and they showed similar correlations with aggression and several characteristics often associated with aggression (i.e., conduct problems, callous-unemotional traits, and positive expectancies about aggression). In contrast, ratings of defending designated a particularly prosocial group of students. Finally, whereas bullying appeared to be very similar in boys and girls, it was somewhat more stable across school years and was related to lower levels of prosocial behavior in boys, both of which could suggest that bullying may be somewhat more related to social group dynamics in girls.     

The role of empathy and social anxiety in Latinx adolescents' indirect peer aggression during the transition to high school

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between decreased empathy (i.e., cognitive and affective) and indirect and cyber peer aggression among Latinx adolescents during their transition to high school. Further, we examined the degree to which social anxiety moderated this relationship. Participants were 469 Latinx ninth graders, ages 13–17 years (M = 14.52, SD = 0.58; 58% girls). Adolescents completed the Revised Peer Experiences Questionnaire, Cyber Peer Experiences Questionnaire, Basic Empathy Scale, and Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents at two different time points, 3 months apart. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed concurrent and prospective relationships between lower cognitive empathy and the perpetration of both indirect and cyber aggression. In addition, social anxiety moderated the concurrent associations between both types of empathy and both types of aggression perpetration. Results suggest that interventions that facilitate cognitive empathy and decrease social anxiety may help to reduce adolescents' indirect and cyber aggression toward peers throughout the high school transition.     

The relation of young children's vicarious emotional responding to social competence,regulation, and emotionality

Abstract

The relation of preschool and kindergarten children's vicarious emotional responding to their social competence, regulation (attentional and coping styles), and emotionality (negative emotional intensity and dispositional negative affect) was examined. Vicarious responding was assessed by means of facial reactions to a film about a peer in a social conflict and children's reported negative affect to viewing peers' real-life negative emotion. Mothers and teachers reported on children's regulation and emotionality, social competence was assessed with sociometric nominations, teachers' reports, and observations of children's real-life anger reactions. Facial concerned attention during the film was associated with various measures of social competence, regulation, and low or moderate negative emotionality. Although negative vicarious emotional responding in real contexts was infrequently related to measures of interest, girls who reported intense negative vicarious emotional responses were relatively unregulated and low in social competence. Finally, with age, regulation of vicarious emotional responding was increasingly related to children's sociometric status and to girls' coping at school. Thus, as they get older, children's abilities to regulate emotions may take on increasing importance in others' evaluations of their social competencies.     

Sociometric Stability and the Behavioral Correlates of Peer Acceptance in Early Childhood

The author presents findings from an Australian study examining the behavioral correlates and stability of social status among preschool-aged children. Using sociometric assessment, the author determined the social status of an initial sample of 187 preschool-aged children (94 boys, 93 girls; M age = 62.4 months, SD age = 4.22 months). The author observed children (N = 70) who were classified as rejected, neglected, or popular. For a total of 25 min during a 3-month period, the author observed children engaging in free play in their preschool centers. Results indicate that children classified as popular were more likely to engage in cooperative play, engage in ongoing connected conversation, and display positive affect, compared with those classified as rejected or neglected. Popular children were less likely than rejected children or neglected children to engage in parallel play, onlooker behavior, or alone-directed behavior. To test for stability and change, the author repeated sociometric interviews 6 months after initial sociometric classification. Results indicate that preschool-aged children's social status classifications showed a moderate to high rate of stability for those children classified as popular, rejected, or neglected.     

Concurrent and longitudinal correlates of preschool peer sociometrics: Comparing rating scale and nomination measures

Nomination and rating scale measures of preschool sociometric status were compared with respect to their patterns of concurrent and longitudinal developmental correlates. The study was undertaken to help fill a void in the empirical literature on young children's peer adjustment. Subjects were 79 4–5 year-old children, currently enrolled in preschool classes. In addition to the sociometric interviews, diverse measures of children's social and cognitive competence were administered concurrently, and longitudinally one year later. These measures included teacher ratings of peer acceptance and behavior problems, and performance measures of social problem-solving ability, impulse control, and vocabulary competence. As expected, the reliability of the rating scale technique was superior to that of the nomination measures. Furthermore, all three sociometric measures had modest but meaningful patterns of concurrent and longitudinal correlates. However, the negative nomination measure was distinguished from the others by its consistent association with measures of impulsivity, and its predictive link with aggressive social problem solving. Therefore, negative peer nomination measures supply unique information about children's social functioning that should be represented in studies of children at risk for social maladjustment.     

Bullying as a group process: Participant roles and their relations to social status within the group

Bullying was investigated as a group process, a social phenomenon taking place in a school setting among 573 Finnish sixth-grade children (286 girls, 287 boys) aged 12–13 years. Different Participant Roles taken by individual children in the bullying process were examined and related to a) self-estimated behavior in bullying situations, b) social acceptance and social rejection, and c) belongingness to one of the five sociometric status groups (popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average). The Participant Roles assigned to the subject were Victim, Bully, Reinforcer of the bully, Assistant of the bully, Defender of the victim, and Outsider. There were significant sex differences in the distribution of Participant Roles. Boys were more frequently in the roles of Bully, Reinforcer and Assistant, while the most frequent roles of the girls were those of Defender and Outsider. The subjects were moderately well aware of their Participant Roles, although they underestimated their participation in active bullying behavior and emphasized that they acted as Defenders and Outsiders. The sociometric status of the children was found to be connected to their Participant Roles. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Defending victims: What does it take to intervene in bullying and how is it rewarded by peers?

Defending is considered important in reducing bullying and victimization in schools. Yet, the prevalence of defending is quite low and there is little insight into aspects that explain why students intervene in bullying situations. The current study used a longitudinal design to simultaneously examine the antecedents and status outcomes of defending behavior. It was expected that affective and social-cognitive factors explain involvement in defending. Moreover, it was proposed that defending would be rewarded with popularity among peers, but only for defenders who were not victimized themselves. Unconflated multilevel path models were used and data came from students in grades 4–6 of Finnish elementary schools (N = 4209 students from 210 classrooms and 38 schools; M_age 11.25; 50% boys). Affective empathy and students' self-efficacy beliefs were predictive of defending behavior over time, whereas cognitive empathy was not. Additionally, defenders increased their popularity among their peers. No substantial differences between victims and non-victims were found. This pattern of results suggests that, irrespective of victim status, specific children are more likely to defend in bullying situations and are rewarded with increased popularity.     

Does surgency moderate the relationship between parenting and children's aggression in middle childhood?

Parenting and child temperament have both been linked to aggression among children. This study explores the moderating effects of children's surgency and sex and paternal/maternal parenting practices on aggressive behaviour in middle childhood. We analyse whether the moderating effects observed fit a Diathesis-Stress, Differential Susceptibility or Vantage Sensitivity model. Participants were 203 school children aged 7–8 years (M = 92.42 months, SD = 3.52) from southern Spain. Maternal inconsistency and coercion and paternal hostility and indulgence, had a direct effect on children's aggressive behaviour. The effects of maternal hostility and anticipatory problem solving on children's aggression were moderated by surgency (Diathesis-Stress), as was the effect of paternal coercion on aggression (Vantage Sensitivity). Children's sex was not found to moderate any effect. It therefore seems that not all children are equally sensitive to the influence of parenting on their aggression levels, and that this influence depends on their temperament.

Highlights

• This study explores the moderating effects of children's surgency and sex and paternal/maternal parenting practices on aggressive behavior.
• Children's surgency moderated the effect of maternal hostility and anticipatory problem solving on children's aggression, with both effects fitting a Diathesis-Stress model.
• Children's surgency moderated the effect of paternal coercion on children's aggression, with this effect fitting a Vantage Sensitivity model.

     

The association between in-class cultural diversity with empathy and bullying in adolescence: A multilevel mediation analysis

Little is known about the associations between cultural class composition, teacher support for diversity (TSD), cognitive and affective empathy, and bullying and victimisation. Research shows that empathy is negatively associated with bullying and victimisation; and support for diversity and classroom cultural diversity are positively linked to social skills. The present study examines whether cultural diversity and perceived TSD are protective factors against bullying and victimisation, either directly or mediated by empathy. Participants were 897 students from Grades 7 to 10 (M_age = 13.45, SD_age = 1.07, 51.3% girls, 46.7% boys) in 36 classes. Multilevel mediation analyses were conducted. Age and gender were controlled for. More perceived TSD and affective empathy were associated with less bullying. Moreover, the effect of perceived TSD on bullying was partly indirect through affective empathy. Victimisation was not predicted by the study variables. The class level showed no effects. Bullying and victimisation are complex phenomena, which seem to be linked more to individual than to class characteristics. The result that higher perceived TSD was linked to empathy and bullying provides a promising starting point for measures of competence enhancement and bullying prevention.     

Social group norms,school norms,and children's aggressive intentions

This study examined whether the effect of social group norms on 7‐ and 10‐year‐old children's aggression can be moderated or extinguished by contrary school norms. Children (n=384) participated in a simulation in which they were assigned membership in a social group for a drawing competition against an outgroup. Participants learnt that their group had a norm of inclusion, exclusion, or exclusion‐plus‐relational aggression, toward non‐group members, and that the school either had a norm of inclusion, or no such norm. Findings indicated that group norms influenced the participants' direct and indirect aggressive intentions, but that the school norm moderated the group norm effect, with the school's norm effect tending to be greater for indirect vs. direct aggression, males vs. females, and younger vs. older participants. Discussion focused on how school norms can be developed, endorsed, and presented so that they have their most lasting effect on children. Aggr. Behav. 36:195–204, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Children and Videogames: Leisure Activities,Aggression, Social Integration,and School Performance1

A survey was conducted among 346 children from the 7th and 8th grade of 7 elementary schools to examine possible positive and negative effects of playing videogames. Analyses revealed that playing videogames did not appear to take place at the expense of children's other leisure activities, social integration, and school performance. A gender difference arose: Boys spent more time playing videogames than did girls. There was no significant relationship between the amount of time children spent on videogames and aggressive behavior. A negative relationship between time spent playing videogames and prosocial behavior was found; however, this relationship did not appear in separate analyses for boys and girls. Furthermore, a positive relationship was found between time spent on videogames and a child's intelligence.     

Teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying

Background. Comparison of teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying is important for considering the implications for reports of its incidence in schools, for the study of developmental trends in children's and adolescents' perceptions of the phenomenon and for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions designed to combat bullying. Aims. To investigate the effects of gender, teacher/pupil status and, for pupils, bullied/non‐bullied (target/non‐target) status and age on the definition of bullying. Samples. Teachers (N = 225: 158 women, 67 men) and pupils (N = 1,820: 466 boys, 460 girls were 11–12 years old, year 7, and 415 boys, 479 girls were 13–14 years, year 9) in 51 UK secondary schools participated in a questionnaire survey. A total of 557 of the pupils (117 girls and 117 boys aged 11–12 years, and 197 girls and 126 boys aged 13–14 years) reported that they had been bullied at some time in their present school. Methods. Written questionnaire responses to the question, ‘Say what you think bullying is’ have been content analysed to derive two sets of categories, one of bullying behaviour and the other of effects of bullying on the target. Results. Regarding both bullying behaviour and the effects of bullying on the target, teachers – by comparison with pupils – have been found to express more comprehensive ideas in their definitions. Specifically, pupils compared with teachers are more likely to restrict their definitions to direct bullying (verbal and/or physical abuse) and are less likely to refer to social exclusion, a power imbalance in the bully's favour and the bully's intention to cause the target hurt or harm and to feel threatened. Analysis of definitions on the bases of sex, pupil age and target/non‐target status show that: targets are more likely than non‐targets are to refer to the bully's physically and verbally abusive behaviour, and for Year 7 compared with Year 9 pupils, to suggest that bullies socially exclude targets; girls are more likely than boys are to mention verbal abuse and the effects on the target of ‘Feels hurt/harm’, but boys are more likely than girls are to construe bullying as involving repetition; older pupils are more likely than younger ones are to refer to a power imbalance in the bully's favour but, for bully targets, younger ones compared with older ones are more likely to invoke the idea of social exclusion in their definitions. Conclusions. The most important implication of the findings of this study that there are important differences between teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying is that teachers need to listen carefully to what pupils have to say about bullying and work with and help them to develop their conceptions of the phenomenon. Some teachers, too, need to develop their conceptions of bullying.     

Social cognitive predictors of peer acceptance at age 5 and the moderating effects of gender

In this study we examined the effects of social intelligence, empathy, verbal ability and appearance‐reality distinction on the level of peer acceptance, as well as the moderating role of gender. Participants were 98 five‐year‐old children (43 boys and 55 girls; mean age 5 years 3 months for boys and girls). Our results showed a main effect of social intelligence on peer acceptance, as well as several other effects that were moderated by gender: a significant and positive effect of verbal ability on social acceptance was found for boys; appearance‐reality distinction was found to have a positive effect on social acceptance in the case of girls; and although empathy had a significant positive effect on social acceptance for both boys and girls, this effect was more pronounced among boys. Our results suggest that abilities promoting peer acceptance are different for boys and girls.     

Bidirectional associations between affective empathy and proactive and reactive aggression

Preliminary evidence indicates that affective empathy is differentially related to proactive and reactive functions of aggression. However, additional longitudinal research is needed to understand the potential reciprocal nature of these links. The current study examined the bidirectional associations between affective empathy and proactive and reactive aggression over a 6-month period during middle childhood, with attention to potential gender differences. Data were collected from 294 elementary school children (52% girls; M = 9.25 years; SD = 0.944 years) and their homeroom teachers. Affective empathy was assessed using self-reports, and teachers provided ratings of children's functions of aggression. Data were collected during the fall and spring of one academic year. Overall, results suggest some evidence that affective empathy and functions of aggression are reciprocally linked over time. As predicted, Time 1 empathy was inversely associated with Time 2 proactive aggression and Time 1 reactive aggression was inversely associated with Time 2 empathy. Contrary to expectations, Time 1 proactive aggression was marginally positively associated with Time 2 empathy, and Time 1 empathy was not significantly associated with Time 2 reactive aggression. These prospective links did not differ according to gender. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.