High school students’ suggestions for supporting younger pupils counteract cyberbullying

This study's aim was to explore high school students’ suggestions for supporting younger pupils prevent and deal with cyberbullying. Seventy-eight high school students participated in 11 focus groups, and had many concrete suggestions for ways they could support younger pupils against cyberbullying. The suggestions covered a range of activities, for instance advising younger pupils on how to avoid becoming victims of cyberbullying by teaching them netiquette. Furthermore, the students were positive toward involving adults in counteracting cyberbullying among younger pupils, for example educating younger pupils’ parents about cyberbullying. Moreover, the students suggested that they could show support for victims of cyberbullying by taking on the role of a friend when a younger pupil is cyberbullied and spend time with her/him during breaks. They also had ideas about supporting younger pupils in getting cyberbullies to stop, for instance by teaching the younger pupils technical skills for dealing with the cyberbullying on the Internet. To conclude, the findings in this study indicate that high school students want to be involved in supporting younger pupils against cyberbullying, and have many concrete suggestions for how this can be done. These findings have implications for counteracting cyberbullying in schools.     

Chicago Youths’ Exposure to Community Violence: Contextualizing Spatial Dynamics of Violence and the Relationship With Psychological Functioning

This study explores where and when community violence exposure (CVE) matters for psychological functioning in a sample of low-income, racial/ethnic minority youth (M) age = 16.17, 55% female, 69% Black, and 31% Non-Black/Latinx) living in Chicago. CVE was measured with violent crime data that were geocoded in terms of distance from youths’ home and school addresses, and then calculated in terms of three distinct spatial dynamics: chronicity, pervasiveness, and spatial proximity. These measures reflect indirect/objective CVE across different conceptualizations of time, space, and neighborhood context. We tested the relationship between each CVE measure and trait anxiety and behavioral and cognitive dysregulation while controlling for youth-reported, direct violent victimization (e.g., being attacked) to examine how indirect/objective CVE occurring within youths’ neighborhood contexts matters beyond direct/subjective violence exposure. Results revealed that long-term chronic, pervasive, and spatially proximal CVE was related to higher levels of behavioral dysfunction. In contrast, CVE within home- and school-based neighborhoods interacted to predict trait anxiety; youth living in low-crime neighborhoods and attending schools in high-crime neighborhoods had the highest rates of trait anxiety. Measuring CVE within both home and school neighborhoods at specific spatial measurements and time frames is critical to understand and prevent the consequences of CVE.     

“Ethical considerations in providing psychological services to unaccompanied immigrant children”

Over 50,000 youth, mostly between the ages of 13 and 17 years, migrated to the United States (US) without familial accompaniment in the fiscal year 2018. The tripartite process of pre-flight, flight, and resettlement exposes these unaccompanied immigrant children (UIC) to multiple, and often ongoing, traumatic events that can significantly and adversely impact their mental health into adulthood. However, the ethical considerations for psychologists working with this growing population, with limited exceptions, remain largely unaddressed. As more and more UIC flee their home countries due to violence, abuse, and economic instability only to experience further stressors during the processes of detainment, custodial placement, and acculturative adjustment in the US, there is an increasing need for psychological services; thus, the importance of preparation of mental health providers is increasingly significant. Psychologists must have the requisite skills and knowledge of the complex experiences of UIC, and of how these intersect with salient cultural, developmental, and systemic factors, as a means of providing competent and ethical mental health treatment. The present article highlights several ethical issues that arise when providing psychological services to UIC, with particular consideration paid to the embeddedness of UIC in various organizational entities with which psychologists will likely need to interface when working with this population. Implications and recommendations for practicing psychologists and training programs are discussed.