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ABSTRACT Bullying is recognized as a serious problem affecting children and adolescents in the U.S. and around the world. Recent school shootings and media attention surrounding them has thrust bullying into the forefront of our attention and has created a sense of resolve around the issue. As a result of the increased media attention around bullying, there has been a call for action and demands for schools to do what they can to decrease bullying. In an effort to deter students from participating in bullying behaviors many schools have been implementing bullying prevention programs to educate students about the negative impacts of bullying and to promote positive behaviors. As with any change, it is not uncommon for the implementation of a bullying prevention program to be met with some resistance by staff, and unfortunately, like many educational innovations they are short-lived. It appears that in order for the implementation of a bullying prevention program to see success and be sustainable within a school, there must be certain conditions in place at the time of the implementation. This study is designed to investigate why the same bullying prevention programs that are perceived to be successful and sustainable in some schools, are not successful nor sustainable in other schools. The goal is to determine what conditions, if any, are present in the schools with perceived successful and sustainable bullying prevention programs, that were not present in schools where the bullying prevention programs were unsuccessful and unsustainable. / Educational Leadership

Objective: This study examined whether overt and relational peer victimization were associated with the severity of Social Phobia (SoP) symptoms and whether frequent victimization was more common among youth with SoP as compared to youth with other anxiety disorders. In addition, the study examined whether self-esteem, peer beliefs, and emotional lability were linked to internalizing symptoms above and beyond overt and relational victimization severity. Method: Participants were 90 youth (47 boys, 43 girls; M age = 11.06 years; SD = 3.09) and their parents. Youth had been referred to an outpatient child and adolescent anxiety disorders clinic. Measures included (a) a semi-structured diagnostic interview, (b) youth self-report forms assessing peer victimization, anxiety, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and global self-worth, and (c) parent-report forms assessing anxiety and emotion regulation. Results: Results showed a concurrent positive association between peer victimization and self-reported social anxiety, with relational victimization providing unique information above and beyond overt victimization. Peer victimization was not associated with a specific diagnosis, but was related to multiple internalizing problems (negative beliefs about the peer group accounted for some of this relation). Conclusions: Peer victimization is important to assess for and consider in the treatment of childhood and adolescent anxiety disorders. Peer victimization is associated with social anxiety symptoms, and relational victimization, in particular, is associated with internalizing problems among youth with anxiety disorders. Victimization appears to be associated with symptomatology rather than diagnosis. / Psychology

Analyzing data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), this study compares the conformity of student gender roles attending single-sex and co-educational schools and examines the relationship between gender role conformity and bullying victimization in each educational context. This study is the first to investigate bullying in single sex schools and to use a large scale national dataset to examine student gender role conformity in schooling. Analyses of the base year 10th grade cohort of ELS:2002 reveal that both single sex and coeducational schooling are distinct contexts for student gender roles. Female students in both single sex and coeducational schools were significantly more likely to have higher average gender role conformity than male students in both single sex and coeducational schools. Gender role conforming students were significantly less likely to be bullied than gender role nonconforming students, even when controlling for whether the school is single sex or coeducational. Results also indicate that schools have dominant gender role norms, as students who differ from the average gender role conformity in their school are significantly more likely to experience bullying. Variation from a school-based gender role norm leads to a greater experience of bullying for students, and it is gender nonconforming students that are most likely to experience this increased likelihood of bullying. Despite the fact that female single sex schools are the most gender role conforming educational contexts among all four investigated in this study, gender role nonconforming girls who attend them are significantly less likely to experience bullying. Addressing the conflation of sex and gender underlying the sex-based educational policy of single sex schooling, this study argues that single sex public educational policy can be more carefully crafted with an attention to its theoretical underpinnings by taking into account the dynamics of students' gender roles. Implications for educational policy are discussed with particular emphasis on policy decisions at the district and state levels in addition to federal level policies, laws, and mandates such as Title IX and No Child Left Behind. / Urban Education

Sociologists of childhood have stressed the importance of children’s experience in the present and children as agents who actively construct their own lives and influence relationships with family and friends. Current thinking in the field of child well-being emphasises the need to consult children as experts in their own lives. Findings from research with children have led to important insights about what contributes to well-being. Relationships with family and friends have been found to be central to well-being whilst bullying by peers deeply impacts on their well-being. Shared activities appear to be the context for children to not only master competences but also learn about and negotiate relationships. The Growing Up in Ireland interviews with 9 year old children were re-analysed with a view to exploring these crucial domains and how they impact on the children’s well-being. The children were found to have a wide circle of family connections and were particularly close to their mothers although also close to their fathers. Grandparents played a significant role in their lives and their relationships with siblings were often positive but did fluctuate. Reasons for closeness centred around trust. Lack of availability due to work was a key contributor to children feeling less close to a family member. The children were involved in a wide range of structured activities after school and at the weekend, This was usually balanced with free time although some ‘hurried’ children had frenetic lifestyles. Involvement in unstructured activities such as free play was particularly associated with time with friends and choice. Friendship was characterised by sharing and trust. On the other hand, bullying by peers had been experienced by many of the children and almost all were conscious of the danger of becoming bullied. The wider issues of work-family balance and its impact on children, the predominance of bullying and children’s right to be heard are reflected upon.

The primary purpose of this research was to examine the long-term relations between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) in middle school children. Furthermore, this study intended to determine the potential roles of self-worth, self-acceptance, and social supports in moderating or mediating these proposed relations. At time one, 280 sixth grade students participated and at follow up, 77 eighth grade children were participants. All children were from the same public middle school and completed self-report measures representing the constructs previously described. Reported levels of peer victimization were found to be similar to those reported in previous studies. Significant concurrent correlations were found between the sixth grade predictor variables (victimization, self-worth, social acceptance, social supports). Sixth grade reported peer victimization was also significantly associated with eighth grade depression for boys and eighth grade social anxiety for girls. Tests of mediation supported the role of global self-worth for boys and social acceptance for girls. Teacher support served a significant moderating role for boys' peer victimization-internalizing symptom (depression and social anxiety) relation. In both cases, boys reported fewer internalizing symptoms when peer victimization was low and teacher support was high. Findings are integrated into the literature regarding peer victimization and internalizing difficulties. / Ph. D.

The perceptions of bullying and the amount of training related to bullying issues experienced by principals was the topic of this study. Elementary principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia were surveyed on their understanding of bullying, the amount of training they received, and what additional staff development needs they perceived would help them to effectively deal with the problem of bullying in their schools. The study found that principals varied in their understanding of the definition of bullying and needed more information and training in order to effectively deal with this problem. The study makes recommendations for how school districts can increase principals' understanding of bullying and what training needs to be implemented to help principals effectively deal with this problem. / Ph. D.

This research examines the relationship between status and cyberbullying among U.S. adolescents. It distinguishes between several status variables and three categories of involvement in cyberbullying: bullies, victims, and non-participants. Utilizing Milner's (2016) theory of status relations, it was hypothesized that cyberbullying is a means by which high school students attempt to gain status among their peers and enforce the status hierarchy of their schools. The more rigid the differentiation between peer groups in a high school, the more likely there would be cyberbullying present. In addition, this research examined if any differences in cyberbullying existed based on the location of the high school in an urban or rural area. Using a multinomial logistic regression to analyze survey data collected from a university in southwest Virginia, partial support for Milner's (2016) theory was found as some status variables, in particular social association, group mobility, and individual mobility, were related to cyberbullying, but no significant results were found by location type. This research contributes a to new theoretical framework for examining cyberbullying and advances the discussion on the influence of peers in cyberbullying, which can impact prevention and intervention efforts aimed at curbing cyberbullying among adolescents. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation examines the effects of popularity and peer groups on cyberbullying among US adolescents. Milner (2016) argued that popularity matters in his theory of status relations and implied the more peer groups were differentiated in a school, the more likely bullying was present in the school. Milner (2016) argued bullying was one way students tried to gain popularity in a school setting. However, Milner's (2016) theory has never been tested. This research tests Milner's (2016) to see if it can explain cyberbullying among U.S. youth. College students at a university in southwest Virginia were surveyed about their cyberbullying experiences in high school and asked about popularity of different groups and themselves. Using statistical methods, the data was analyzed and found some support for the assertion that popularity and peer groups matter when it comes to cyberbullying. In addition, this dissertation examined if the location of the high school (urban, suburban, town or rural) impacted cyberbullying, but no support was found for this hypothesis.

The most common school-based interventions to prevent victimization from bullying use disciplinary methods and increase playground supervision. While enforcement approaches can prevent bullying, the effects are often short term and may lead to undesirable side effects. Thus, it seems a positive approach to increase prosocial behavior and prevent victimization is needed. This study evaluated the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) approach in four Southwest Virginia middle schools. Sixth and seventh grade students from two schools (n=209) participated in a five-week prosocial-focused curriculum, while 194 students served in the control group. All participants completed pre and post-test measures on their prosocial behavior performed and received, aggressive victimization and aggression performed, as well as bullying victimization and bullying performed to others. Linear regression and binary logistic regression were used to assess the impact of the Intervention. Follow-up moderator analyses were performed to assess the impact of Intervention Fidelity, Classroom Climate, Coaches' Entity Prosocial Mindset, and Role Model Perceptions. No intervention effects were observed and no moderators of the intervention were significant. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed. / Master of Science