Bullying in schools

Some, but not all, children who experience rejection or victimization by peers develop aggressive habits in response. This dissertation study tested the hypothesis that children who possess demonstration self-guides—cognitive structures that motivate a child to display behaviors and attributes that bring attention, admiration, or subservience from peers—are particularly at risk for such aggressive reactions. Children with such self-guides, it is suggested, experience adverse treatment by peers as particularly frustrating, humiliating, and shameful, and these reactions increase the children’s threshold for exhibiting aggression during peer interactions. Participants were 195 children in the fourth through seventh grades of a school serving an ethnically and racially diverse student population (94 girls and 101 boys; M age = 10.1 years). Children completed self- and peer-report questionnaires in the fall and spring of a school year. Measures included rejection and victimization by peers, demonstration self-guides (narcissism, self-efficacy for demonstration attributes, felt pressure for gender conformity, and sexist ideology), aggression toward peers, and other variables testing secondary hypotheses. Consistent with the focal hypothesis, children with demonstration self-guides were more likely than other children to increase their aggression following peer rejection or victimization. However, this result was more common for girls than for boys; for boys, increased aggression more often reflected additive rather than interactive effects of peer rejection/victimization and demonstration motivation. Support for the focal hypothesis also depended on additional moderator variables, including gender of the peer group rejecting or victimizing the child, the nature of the demonstration self-guide, and gender of the target of the child’s own aggression.

The current study investigated the change in relationship between an aggressor's attachment style (avoidant or preoccupied) and a series of characteristics in their victims' over a school year. Once a semester, participants rated themselves and their classmates on 16 personality characteristics and their aggression levels against other students. Only avoidant girls significantly refined their targets over the course of a school year. They increased their aggression towards girls with low appearance self-efficacy, a high avoidance attachment, high depression, high cross-gender typed behavior, high internalizing behavior, and low global self-worth.

Many cardiovascular psychophysiological studies have found evidence of lower arousal states in aggressive individuals and hyper-arousal states in individuals exposed to chronic stress. However, most of these studies have relied on clinical diagnoses or self-reports to identify aggressive and victimized individuals. The present study used peer nominations to identify aggressive, victimized, and non-aggressive or victimized adolescents (mean age = 12.09 yrs.) to examine if any psychophysiological differences exist during resting and startle conditions. ANOVAs revealed that high aggressive/low victimized adolescents had a lower resting heart period/rate compared to high victimized/low aggressive adolescents. Further analyses revealed a statistical trend of lower resting heart period variability in high victimized/low aggressive individuals compared to non-aggressive non-victimized controls. Due to evidence suggesting that individuals with high self-reported empathy display less aggression, empathy as a moderator for aggression was investigated. Although gender differences w3ere found across measures, empathy ws not found to moderate aggression.

Peer aggression and bullying are significant problems for children in American schools. While a large body of research has been conducted in this area, none to date has examined the combined roles of temperament (behavioral activation system, or BAS, and behavioral inhibition system, or BIS), and empathy in predicting participation in bullying interactions. Previous research has found that low empathy facilitates aggressive behavior, while high empathy inhibits it, and has linked poor emotion regulation to conduct disorders. Thus, if these factors can predict behaviors towards peers, they may also predict (independently and in combination) involvement in bullying, specifically the roles assumed in those interactions - that is: bully, victim, bully-victim (a child who is both bully and victim), or defender/protector. The present study tested 226 middle school students on a measure of empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index), and a measure of temperament (BIS/BAS Scales). The students also completed a Peer Nomination Inventory to identify children who were aggressive toward others, victimized by peers, and/or protected peers from bullies. Although not all predictions were supported, results showed that certain sub-components of empathy, such as empathic concern (affective empathy) and personal distress (a measure of emotion regulation) predicted the behavior of "pure bullies" (bullies who are not themselves victimized), but not of other aggressive children such as bully-victims. High BAS drive and low BIS were significant predictors of aggressive behavior, and BAS reward responsiveness predicted protective behavior. Victimized children had higher fantasy (ability to identify with fictional characters) and lower perspective-taking (cognitive empathy) skills, and tended not to have overlapping characteristics and behaviors with protective children.

The purpose of the current study was to examine differences in pro-social behaviors, bullying behaviors, engagement in school success skills, and perceptions of classroom climate between grade 5 students in the treatment group who received the Student Success Skills (SSS) classroom guidance program (Brigman & Webb, 2010) and grade 5 students in the comparison group who did not receive the intervention. School counselors in the treatment schools implemented SSS with students in grade 5 after being trained in the manualized use of the program and other study-related procedures. The study followed a pre-post quasi-experimental design employing various self-report measures of behavior (PRQ, SE-SSS, MCI-SFR, and TMCI-SF). A series of ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses were then conducted to determine if there were statistically significant differences between the groups. Effect size estimates were also calculated for each measure. The data supported the SSS classroom guidance program as a viable intervention for positively affecting student behavior. Significant differences were noted between the treatment and comparison schools in the following areas: (a) increased pro-social behaviors, (b) decreased bullying behaviors, (c) increased engagement in school success skills, and (d) student perceptions of improved classroom climate. This study provides empirical support showing that students who are taught skills in key areas evidence benefits across several outcomes. The study also indicates that aggressive behaviors, like bullying, can be influenced by programs that do not specifically target those behaviors. Furthermore, it supports the positive impact school counselors can have on student success by implementing an evidence-based program.