Under what conditions do U.S. and Taiwanese late adolescents feel victimized by their peers?

This study investigates whether cultural differences exist between the ways U.S. and Taiwanese college students perceive peer victimization using both an experimental vignette method and an open‐ended question format. A total of 1,125 college students (53% female) from the United States (n = 535) and Taiwan (n = 590) read and responded to vignettes which depicted peer interactions in the college context. The peer interactions varied along three factors expected to be associated with differentiating victimization from affiliative teasing: hostility, playfulness, and relationship closeness. Controlling for individual factors of sex, prior victimization, prior teasing, and emphasis on interpersonal harmony, students perceived more victimization when both hostility and a lack of playfulness were present. Culture interacted with the situational factors such that both hostility and lack of playfulness were stronger predictors of perceived victimization for Taiwanese than for U.S. college students. In open‐ended responses about sensitive topics, “Ability and academic performance” and “Self/thoughts/characters/habits” were more indicative of victimization for Taiwanese college students. “Health and disability” was more salient as indicative of victimization for U.S. college students. Findings from this study are among the first to evaluate signals of peer victimization with a cultural comparison; they can be used to inform victimization intervention programs or socioemotional curriculums in late adolescence to be culturally relevant.     

Telling adults about one's plight as a victim of bullying: Student- and context-related factors predicting disclosure

We examined student- and context-related factors related to whether bullied students tell adults about their plight at school or at home. The sample included 1,266 students in primary (Grades 4–6) and lower secondary (Grades 8–9) schools, who had answered an online questionnaire at two measurement points about 5 months apart and were identified as victims of bullying on the basis of the latter. Only 55.4% of the bullied students had told their situation to someone, and much fewer had told an adult. Telling an adult at home was more common (34.0%) than telling a teacher (20.6%) or some other adult at school (12.7%). In a longitudinal structural equation model (SEM), factors related to increased likelihood of telling an adult were female gender, lower grade level, the chronicity of victimization, perceived negative teacher attitude towards bullying (teacher not tolerating bullying), and perceived peer support for victims (classmates’ tendency to defend students who are victimized).     

母亲消极教养、同伴侵害与FKBP5基因对青少年抑郁的影响

累积压力假说与匹配-不匹配假说均可解释远端和近端逆境对个体抑郁的影响, 但鲜有研究考察遗传基因在其中的调节作用。采用问卷法和DNA分型技术, 对970名青少年进行间隔3年的追踪调查。分别以母亲消极教养、同伴侵害为远端和近端压力指标, FKBP5基因多位点累加得分为遗传指标, 考察三者对青少年抑郁的交互作用及性别差异。结果发现, 在男青少年中, E × E × G显著。当累加得分较高、同伴侵害水平较高时, 母亲消极教养显著负向预测抑郁, 符合匹配-不匹配假说; 累加得分较低时, E × E不显著, 但倾向于以累积压力假说的方式发挥作用。女青少年中, E × E × G不显著。研究结果提示, 在男青少年中, 累积压力假说与匹配-不匹配假说均可阐明抑郁的发生机制, 分别适用于携带不同FKBP5基因多位点累加得分的个体。     

Predictors of Attributional Style Change in Children

A number of studies have supported the hypothesis that negative attributional styles may confer vulnerability to the development of depression. The goal of this study was to explore factors that may contribute to the development of negative attributional styles in children. As hypothesized, elevated levels of depressive symptoms and hopelessness at the initial assessment predicted negative changes in children's attributional styles over the 6-month follow-up period. In addition, elevated levels of verbal victimization occurring between the 2 assessments, as well as that occurring in the 6 months preceding the initial assessment, prospectively predicted negative changes in children's attributional styles over the follow-up. Further, initial depressive symptoms and verbal victimization during the follow-up continued to significantly predict attributional style change even when the overlap among the predictors was statistically controlled. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, neither parent-reported levels of overall negative life events nor parents' attributions for their children's events predicted changes in children's attributional styles.     

Victimization in South Korean children's peer groups

This study reports a cross-sectional investigation of the behavioral, academic, and psychosocial correlates of victimization in South Korean children's peer groups. The participants were 122 children (66 boys, 56 girls; from 10–12-years-old) recruited from a primary school in Seoul, South Korea. Multi-informant assessments (peer nominations, teacher ratings, and self-reports) of peer victimization, social behavior, loneliness/social dissatisfaction, and academic functioning were obtained. Multivariate analyses indicated that peer victimization was associated with poor academic adjustment, loneliness, submissive–withdrawn behavior, aggression, and low levels of assertive–prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that there is considerable similarity in the social processes underlying peer group victimization across South Korean and Western cultural settings.     

Relational and physical victimization within friendships: nobody told me there'd be friends like these

In past research, relational and physical forms of peer victimization have been identified that have been shown to be significantly associated with social–psychological maladjustment. These forms of victimization, although studied primarily within the group peer context, also occur within dyadic relationships such as friendships. Gender differences in friend victimization and the association between friend victimization and children's social–psychological adjustment were examined. Results showed that boys were more physically victimized by their friends than were girls. Girls were more relationally than physically victimized by their friends. Friend victimization was related to adjustment difficulties for both boys and girls; however, friend physical victimization was particularly related to boys whereas friend relational victimization was particularly related to girls. The implications of these findings for future research and intervention with victimized children are discussed.     

The Role of Life Stress and Social Support in the Adjustment of Sexually Victimized Pregnant and Parenting Minority Adolescents

Associations among sexual victimization and the psychosocial functioning of African American and Latina pregnant and parenting adolescents were examined. Forty-seven (17.7%) of the 265 participants reported histories of sexual victimization, most of which was unwanted sexual intercourse. The victimized adolescents reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and life stress and, although the two groups reported no differences in their levels of social support, support was found to be differentially related to depression and anxiety in the two groups. In particular, victims derived benefits from social support at low levels of stress, but social support provided no protection against depression and anxiety at average or high levels of stress. For nonvictims, social support provided no benefits at low levels of stress, but protected against depression and anxiety at moderate levels of stress and against depression at high levels of stress. Implications of these findings for research, theory, and intervention are discussed.     

关于校内欺负行为中受欺负者研究的述评

该文从概念、研究方法、受欺负类型、研究对象的特点等方面,评述了关于中小学校同伴之间相互欺负中的受欺负者的研究,尤其是对自陈法、提名法、直接观察法、日记法、个体访谈法这些研究方法的利弊进行了分析;区分了受欺负的不同形式;归纳了家庭、同伴和学校风气对受欺负的影响,同时提出了研究中的一些问题,并对今后的研究方向作了一些探讨