Social network predictors of bullying and victimization

This study examined whether bullies, victims, and aggressive victims (those who are both bullies and victims) differed on classroom social network variables, gender, and ethnicity. Survey data were collected from a primarily Latino and Asian sample of 1,368 Southern California 6th graders (mean age = 11.3 years). Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine whether network characteristics and ethnicity were associated with each of the outcome variables. Consistent with social cognitive theory, friends' participation in aggressive behaviors was positively associated with being a bully or an aggressive victim, and negatively associated with being a victim. Consistent with social dominance theory, the number of friendship nominations received was negatively associated with being a victim. Female bullies received fewer friendship nominations, but had a higher proportion of reciprocated friendships. Victims were disproportionately Asian. The findings suggest that bullying prevention efforts targeting highly aggressive students may also diffuse to their friends, and that assertiveness training in handling aggressive situations may successfully combat bullying and aggression.     

Preschoolers' social information processing and early school success: The challenging situations task

As part of a larger longitudinal project on the assessment of preschoolers' social‐emotional development, children's social information processing (SIP) responses to unambiguous hypothetical situations of peer provocation were assessed for 298 four‐year‐olds from Head Start and private childcare settings. Measurement focused on emotions children would feel during these situations, and their behaviour response decisions. Participants most often chose sad and angry emotions, and socially competent and passive behaviours. Relations were found between sad emotion and socially competent behaviour choices, as well as between angry emotion and aggressive behaviour choices. Sad emotion and socially competent behaviour responses contributed to variance in contemporaneous and later school adjustment and kindergarten academic readiness. There was evidence that the contributions of sad emotion responses were mediated by those of socially competent behaviour choices. Results bolstered calls to include emotion in SIP measures, supported predictive validity for this SIP measure in a large representative sample of preschoolers, and pointed to fruitful pathways for future research.     

Psychological symptoms and body image in individuals with gender dysphoria: A comparison between Iranian and Dutch clinics

Background: Few studies have compared the psychological functioning of individuals with gender dysphoria in Western and non-Western cultures. To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing the mental health of transgender individuals from an Islamic and non-Islamic country (Iran and the Netherlands).

Methods: In this study, the psychological functioning and body image of 163 individuals with gender dysphoria (100 transgender women (75 in the Netherlands, 25 in Iran) and 63 transgender men (45 in the Netherlands, 18 in Iran) in two clinics located in Iran (N = 43) and the Netherlands (N = 120) was evaluated using the SCL-90 and the Body Image Scale (BIS). Also, none of these individuals had yet received hormonal therapy and/or surgery in their clinics.

Results: Dutch participants (M = 31.56, SD = 12.26) were older than Iranian participants (M = 25.21, SD = 3.04). Dutch transwomen were less often androphilic (sexually attracted to men) than Iranian transwomen, and Iranian trans people were more often bisexual than the Dutch trans people. Significantly more Dutch transgender people were married (we had no information about the gender of the spouse), and indicated to have more contact with their families than the participants in Iran. The participants from Iran had significantly more psychological complaints than the Dutch participants. Compared to participants in Iran, participants in the Netherlands were more dissatisfied with their secondary sexual characteristics and neutral body characteristics, but there was no significant difference between the countries in terms of satisfaction with primary sex characteristics.

Conclusions: Although transgender people in many countries face social and mental health problems, this study suggests that socio-cultural factors may increase the likelihood of psychopathology.