While current psychological theory and research suggest conceptual associations between bullying and behavioral disorders, there is a gap in the literature examining such relationships. Although contemporary theories of aggression describe emotional, social, and cognitive risk factors that are common both, associations between bully-victim patterns and ODD have not been studied to date. This exploratory study addressed this gap by surveying 27 teachers to assess their reports of aggressive behaviors and socioemotional patterns of 58 male middle school students who were identified through school investigations as involved in bullying incidents. Between-group differences for students classified as bullies, victims, or bully-victims were examined for symptoms of behavioral disorders (including ODD) and types of aggression (proactive, reactive). Measures included the Bully Behavior questionnaire, SNAP-IV, and Teacher Rating Scale. Kruskal-Wallis analyses of between-group differences indicated that, in general, bullies and bully-victims scored higher than victims on measures of behavioral symptoms and aggression but did not differ from each other on any behavioral disorders or types of aggression. Findings may reflect difficulties with measurement instruments sensitive enough to identify differences between bully and bully-victim behaviors, and with limitations to teachers' observations of students' interpersonal behaviors. Further, current school investigations do not adequately recognize bully-victim patterns. However, this study's attention to possible unique risks of behavioral disorders in bully-victim behavior patterns can inform schools, families, and communities to consider these risk factors and in their efforts to offer more effective approaches for prevention and intervention.

According to the American Psychological Association, 160,000 children miss school each day because of a fear of bullying. Existing research indicates that the typical male style of bullying is distinctly different from the typical female style of bullying, which is referred to as relational aggression. This kind of aggression can cause damage to girls in the form of low self-esteem, eating disorders, and suicide. Research on female bullying has increased in the last five years, yet there is minimal research on relational aggression from the female perspective. The purpose of this qualitative study was to expand on the existing bullying research by exploring the opinions of 3rd, 5th, and 7th-grade girls (N=16) from a rural area of the Pacific Northwest regarding the definition, development, and response to female bullying and relational aggression with the use of semi-structured interviews. The main theoretical foundations for this study were the social learning perspective and the social information processing theory. Participant responses indicated differences by grade in the definition of relational aggression. There was general agreement among the responses that bullying increases over time. Participant responses supported previous research findings that victims, bystanders, and the bully suffer from the behavior. Findings from this study contribute to the body of knowledge about female bullying from a female perspective. This additional knowledge has the potential to assist education policy makers, school personnel, parents, and children in understanding and recognizing the female bullying process and consequences. This understanding will assist with recognition and intervention in bullying situations as well as the development and implementation of more effective bullying prevention programs specific to girls.

The objective of the current research was to test the initial feasibility and potential efficacy of a group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention for partner aggression, compared to a support and discussion control group, in a clinical sample of adults. Specifically, the study was intended to provide preliminary evidence of the impact of an ACT group on psychological and physical aggression, and to examine the processes responsible for any treatment effects. One hundred and one participants (mean age = 31; 68% female) were randomly assigned to receive ACT or the support and discussion control group. Both interventions consisted of 12 weekly 2-hour sessions and participants were assessed with self-report measures at pre-treatment, twice during treatment, at post-treatment, and at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Results of growth curve modeling analyses demonstrated that participants in the ACT group had significantly greater decreases in psychological and physical aggression at post-treatment and follow-up, and also showed improvements in depressive symptoms, interpersonal problems, and social functioning. Finally, the effect of the ACT group on psychological and physical aggression was mediated by experiential avoidance, suggesting that the intervention had its effects, at least in part, through increasing emotional acceptance. These results demonstrate that an ACT approach to aggression may be a viable alternative to traditional treatments.

The present study sought to examine the relationship between victimization by peers in middle school and academic outcomes. it was expected that an association between the experience of victimization and diminished academic performance would be mediated by poor psychological outcomes, as measured by moodiness, depression, anxiety, and anger. additionally, it was hypothesized that academic outcomes could be divided into two distinct constructs, motivation and achievement, with motivation and academic goal-orientation variables preceding the adequate attainment of school grades and standardized test scores. therefore, the present mediated model was tested using a structural equation modeling technique: victimization-psychological functioning-academic motivation-academic achievement. additionally, it was hypothesized that certain factors (friendship, prosocial activities and influences, school climate, aggression, and teacher-reported difficulties) would moderate the victimization-psychological functioning pathway. victimized middle school boys and girls were expected to have varying psychological and emotional outcomes depending on proposed risk and protective factors. approximately equal numbers of males and females (n=145 and 181, respectively) were randomly selected from classrooms in 11 middle schools across 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Students completed questionnaires that assessed hypothesized mediator and moderator variables. In addition, teachers of the selected classrooms completed a brief rating scale on each of the students, which assessed student moodiness, behavioral difficulties, and learning problems. Achievement and discipline records data were obtained. Results revealed that Psychological Functioning mediated the relationship between Victimization and Academic Motivation, which was then related directly to Academic Achievement. Only the Aggression and Climate constructs moderated the Victimization-Psychological Functioning pathway, with Climate factors additionally significant for boys. These results suggest that victimization is associated with poor motivation to achieve if victimized students also experience psychological difficulties. Limited motivation is then associated with poorer academic performance. Contrary to hypothesized associations, endorsing aggressive beliefs and behaviors and experiencing low levels of intervention and support at school against bullying, particularly for boys, were related to better emotional outcomes for students who are highly victimized. While statistically significant, these findings have limited effect sizes. Implications for future research and the development of school-based programming are discussed.

Relations among job stressors, leadership style, emotional reactions to work,counterproductive work behavior (CWB), and autonomy were investigated. Participants representing a wide variety of jobs were surveyed. Results indicate that transactional leadership style is related to negative emotions and occurrence of CWB. Relationships between variables were mediated by emotions.

Criminological, psychological, and developmental researchers have relentlessly explored behavioral characteristics and juvenile justice outcomes in an effort to establish the most appropriate means of analyzing childhood and adolescent problem behaviors. Cross-discipline, empirical evidence and factor analytic research has consistently identified the presence of two predictive concepts, physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking. Research pertaining to the risk factors and correlates of these two distinct substructures of offending align with theoretically postulated typologies of delinquency and offending as well as the frequently cited patterns of delinquency and offending within reviews of longitudinal research. Using longitudinal data from a sample of 756 at-risk, males and females during late childhood and early adolescence, the present research examined variations in latent trajectories of physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking as well as empirically substantiated risk factors that may influence problem behaviors and juvenile justice involvement. The findings support a 4-class model for both physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking as well as a relationship between supported risk factors and latent class membership. A comprehensive understanding of physical aggression and nonaggressive rule-breaking may provide the basis for targeted, problem-specific strategies aimed at early intervention.

Using a 471-case nursing sample, the current study examined the direct and indirect relationships between workplace aggression (including physical and psychological) against nurses and their health and safety consequences. Specifically, physical and psychological aggression nurses experienced were related to their job dissatisfaction, turnover intention, physical symptoms, injuries and exposure to contagious disease directly and/or indirectly through their emotional strain (irritation, anxiety, and depression). In addition, my findings demonstrated that stronger violence prevention climate (i.e., good prevention practices/response and low pressure for unsafe practices) was related to less frequent violence and psychological aggression incidents nurses experienced. Also, my results indicated significant moderating effect of organizational violence prevention practices/response (one dimension of violence prevention climate) in the relationships of nurses' physical and psychological aggression with their anxiety and depression, such that nurses who perceived stronger (vs. weaker) violence prevention climate seemed to be more (vs. less) anxious about or depressed by aggression incidents that occurred to them. However, overall nurses who perceived stronger violence prevention climate felt less anxious and depressed at work than those who perceived weaker climate. Finally, regarding the role of social burden, there was evidence from this study supporting its positive relationship with nurses' perceived irritation, anxiety, and depression although there did not seem to be evidence supporting its moderating role between nurses' aggression experience and their emotional strain. In summary, emotional strain seemed to be a relatively consistent mediator between nurses' aggression experiences and their health or safety consequences, and nurses' perceived social context (violence prevention climate and social burden) did significantly and directly relate to their health and safety consequences, but more research is warranted before we conclude about their potential moderating role in the aggression-consequence relationships.

This thesis argues for the power of story and, in particular, the story of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien to help build optimism and hope. The Hobbit is under-used in primary schools and this thesis demonstrates that it is eminently suitable for children. Without imagination children are vulnerable to sadness and despair. The positive development of imagination through heroic tales is likely to benefit children emotionally and psychologically. The story of The Hobbit can be utilised to develop the concept of the Hero's Journey, a persistent trope in oral and recorded literature and an archetype for virtually all human experience. In addition, the thesis shows that critical thinking skills and multiple intelligences can be developed through the use of The Hobbit. Depression in young people is now recognised as a serious public health problem in Australia. Research supports the view that children need optimism. This thesis discusses statistics regarding the increased prevalence of childhood depression and aggression as well as alarming youth suicide reports. The inquiry by the Victorian Parliament into the effects of television violence on children is examined and the scholarly works of Neil Postman, inter alia, are discussed to establish the overall pattern of positive association between television violence and aggression in children. Furthermore, the contention that many contemporary realistic texts do little to promote hopefulness in the young is supported with the opinions of scholars who are respected in the field of children’s literature. Tolkien was a devout Catholic but, even more importantly, he was able to restate traditional values through his imaginative works of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This has relevance for Catholic educators who strive to relate Gospel values to popular culture. Christian education must extend imagination beyond morality to help young people to find meaning and purpose in their lives. Through the use of The Hobbit and other books of this kind, children can begin to learn not to fear change, failure or setbacks but to see them as important challenges and opportunities for personal growth. This thesis argues for the likely value of a continuum of this type of learning that begins in early childhood, in order to provide a

<p>Aggression Replacement Training (ART) är en multimodal behandlingsmetod som riktar sig till barn och ungdomar med aggressivt och antisocialt beteende. ART bygger på kognitiv beteendeterapi (KBT). Metoden består av tre kompo-nenter. Social färdighetsträning, ilskekontrollträning och moralträning. Syftet är att se hur två klassföreståndare, en elevassistent och tre ART-tränare upplever elevers utveckling av färdigheter i och med ART-träning, samt se hur informan-terna upplever att klassen där den enskilda eleven ingått har förändrats i och med den ART-träning som denne erhållit. Även miljöns påverkan på upprätthål-landet av de nyförvärvade färdigheterna undersöks. Studien har genomförts med kvalitativ metod. Halvstrukturerade intervjuer har utförts vilka sedermera har analyserats med hjälp av innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att respondenterna upplever positiva förändringar hos de elever som fullföljer ART. Effekter som de kunnat skönja är ett minskat vinstorienterat beteende, ökat självförtroende och förbättrad koncentrationsförmåga samt effektivt tillämpande av de nyför-värvade färdigheterna både praktiskt och teoretiskt. Klassen har i de flesta av fallen förändrats genom att den har blivit lugnare och tryggare som grupp. Mil-jön är av stor betydelse för de förändringsprocesser som eleven genomgår. Vi-dare är miljön väsentlig för upprätthållandet av färdigheterna i skolklassen. Den kritik som respondenterna riktar till metoden är gällande den bristande roll bar-nens föräldrar spelar i behandlingen. Författarnas slutsats är att ART är en ef-fektiv metod som ger stöd och möjligheter för elever med ett avvikande beteen-de. Skolan upplevs av författarna vara en optimal plats för att vidareutveckla och bevara de färdigheter som ART medför. Vidare diskuteras huruvida en ut-vecklad dialog mellan de vuxna som finns kring varje elev skulle leda till ökade möjligheter att tillgodose det enskilda barnets specifika behov. För att detta skall kunna ske bör föräldrar/vårdnadshavare ges större utrymme till att ta del av barnets behandling och skolgång. Studien avslutas med förslag på fortsatt forskning.</p>

<p>The aim of this thesis was to study chickens of an F7 intercross between red junglefowl and White Leghorn layers in five behavioural tests to see if there were any correlations between traits in the intercross. 80 animals were used (40 males, 40 females); they were tested in a tonic immobility test, an open field, a fear of human test, an aggression test and lastly a sociality test. The results indicate a pair of correlations between the different variables; chickens with long tonic immobility duration were less aggressive, and chickens with a high fear of humans were more social towards other chickens, which could suggest a correlation between fear and social behaviour/aggression. The results from this study also support previous studies showing that one QTL controls chickens’ behaviour in the tonic immobility test based on the correlations found between the variables in the tonic immobility test. Differences between the genders were found in variables that correlated with each other; this could lead to a speculative suggestion that those behaviours are affected by genes on the X-chromosome. There was also a significant relationship between the weight of the male chickens and their behaviour in the open field test and in the fear of human test, in which the heavier males were less fearful than the lighter ones.</p>