abstract: Despite some prevailing attitudes that bullying is normal, relatively innocuous behavior, it has recently been recognized as a serious problem in schools worldwide. Victimized students are more likely to evidence poor academic and semi-academic outcomes, experience social difficulties, and drop out of school in comparison to their non-victimized peers. Although anti-bullying programs have proliferated during the last decade, those aimed at helping children cope with bullying often suffer from a lack of basic research on the effectiveness of children's responses to bullying. The focus of this study was to delineate the ways in which elementary school-aged children typically cope with peer victimization, then to examine which strategies reduce future risk for harassment and associated adjustment problems to inform prevention and intervention program development. A cohort-sequential design was used to examine the effectiveness of children's strategies for coping with peer victimization. The sample included 317 children (157 boys; 49.5% Caucasian, 50.5% Hispanic; M age =10 years 5 months at T1) who were surveyed in the Fall and Spring of two academic years. Confirmatory factory analysis was used to validate the factor structure of the coping measure used and internal reliability was verified. Comparison of means indicated differences in children's coping based upon sex and age. For example, girls tend to cope more emotionally and cognitively, while boys are more behavioral in their coping. Regression results indicated that a number of specific relationships were present between coping, victimization, loneliness, and anxiety. For example, support seeking behavior was effective at decreasing victimization for younger children (fourth graders) who experienced high initial victimization. In contrast, revenge seeking behavior was predictive of increased victimization for both girls and highly victimized students. Problem solving was effective at reducing adjustment problems over time for younger students and, although results for older students were non-significant, it appears to be a promising strategy due to a lack of association with negative future outcomes. Results highlight the importance of identifying influential characteristics of individual children in order for prevention and intervention programs to successfully decrease the incidence and adverse impact of bullying behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2010

abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role teacher-relational bullying schemas may have in influencing the likelihood of youth seeking teachers' assistance. The first goal of the study was to assess whether supportive and helpful teacher-responses to bullying schemas (TRBS) were associated with greater likelihood of involving teachers, and unhelpful TRBSs was related to lower likelihood of teacher seeking coping. The second goal was to examine possible differences in TRBS and likelihood of seeking help based on sex, grade, personal behavioral blame, personal aggression, and victimization. Towards these aims, data were gathered from 320 fourth and sixth grade students (152 boys; 168 girls) in the fall and spring of the academic year. MANOVA analyses revealed sex and grade differences, such as sixth grade boys were least likely to tell their teacher and most likely to blame their own behavior for being bullied than any other group. Results from a series of regression analyses found personal behavior blame and peer-directed aggression was related with less likelihood of telling. In addition, the association between parents or principal TRBS and telling the teacher was moderated by personal behavioral blame. Moreover, punishment predicted lower probability of telling concurrently and longitudinally. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Family and Human Development 2013

abstract: School bullying is a serious problem for children and adolescents, associated with a multitude of psychological and behavioral problems. Interventions at the individual level have primarily been social skills training for victims of bullying. However, investigators have had mixed results; finding little change in victimization rates. It has been suggested victims of school bullying have the social skills necessary to be effective in a bullying situation; however they experience intense emotional arousal and negative thoughts leading to an inability to use social skills. One intervention that has been getting increasing acknowledgement for its utility in the intervention literature in psychology is mindfulness. However, there has been no research conducted examining the effects of mindfulness meditation on victims of bullying. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an online intervention for victims of bullying that utilizes the cutting-edge technique of mindfulness and to determine the efficacy of this intervention in the context of bullying victimization. Participants were 32 adolescents ages 11 to 14 identified by their school facilitators as victims of bullying. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to assess the efficacy of the NMT program versus a treatment as usual (TAU) social skills program. Results revealed significant decreases in victimization and increases in mindfulness among both treatment groups from pre-test to follow-up and post-test to follow-up assessments. There were no differences found between the two treatment groups for mean victimization or mindfulness scores. Overall, the NMT program appears to be a promising online intervention for bullied teens. Directions for future research and limitations of this study were also discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Counseling Psychology 2013

Depression is one of the most disabling mental disorders with respect to years living with symptoms and life lost prematurely. Understanding the development of depression symptoms in childhood and adolescence is important considering the increase in prevalence in adolescence and the substantial continuity of depression symptoms over time. Interpersonal perspectives on depression emphasize the interpersonal environment in the development, and remission of symptoms. In the present dissertation, the interpersonal environment focus was peer experiences. Specifically, the conditions under which peer experiences and depression symptoms were associated concurrently and longitudinally were examined in preschool, childhood, and adolescence. Different types of peer experiences were associated with depression symptoms in specific ways. In Study 1, the type of aggression and informant mattered where relational peer victimization and depression symptoms were associated in the presence of relational aggression when data were reported by teachers. In Study 2, informant and type of peer experience mattered such that when examining competing models of directional association of peer experiences and depression symptoms, depression symptoms predicted peer rejection across reporters and depression predicted peer victimization when data were self-reported. In Study 3, the type of aggression mattered again but peer-reported peer victimization was associated with self-reported depression symptoms in the presence of overt aggression for girls concurrently and over time. The effect was stronger for those who transitioned to high school. The conditions under which peer experiences and depression symptoms were associated depended on type of aggression (i.e., relational peer victimization and relational aggression in preschool and overt aggression for girls in late childhood and adolescence), type of relationship disturbance (i.e., peer victimization and peer rejection), informant, and whether individuals transitioned to high school.

Human beings are social creatures. Accordingly, fear of social situations can be severely disabling. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by excessive fear of negative evaluation in social or performance situations. SAD has an early onset and often goes undetected an untreated. Descriptive studies on non‐clinical samples are required in order to find ways to prevent SAD and associated consequences. This thesis aimed at examining epidemiological variables of SAD in adolescence which is the critical period for onset of SAD. More exactly, issues of detection and prevalence, victimization and developmental course were addressed. Data was collected in four different community samples, using cross‐sectional and longitudinal designs. In the first study (n=169), psychometric evaluation of a screening questionnaire for use with adolescents was conducted. The second study (n=2128) investigated prevalence of SAD in students in grade 6‐8 (age 12‐14 years). In the third study (n=3211), the association between SAD and victimization in high‐school students (aged 17) was investigated. Finally, in the fourth study (n=350), longitudinal associations between social anxiety and depressive symptoms were investigated, with 4 waves of data from grade 7 to grade 11. Self‐reported SAD was found among 4.4% of students in grade 6‐8 and among 10.6% of high‐school students. Females reported SAD to a significantly higher degree than males in all age groups. Experiences of peer victimization, maltreatment and sexual victimization were significantly more common in those reporting SAD than in non‐cases. Social anxiety was stable over adolescence. Further, peer victimization in grade 7 predicted social anxiety that mediated subsequent depressive symptoms. In conclusion, self‐reported SAD is common in Swedish adolescents and especially in girls and older adolescents. Social anxiety is stable over adolescence and correlated with depressive symptoms over course. The high prevalence rates, stable course and mediation of depressive symptoms call for early detection and prevention of social anxiety. The relationship between victimization and SAD needs to be investigated further in controlled prospective studies on children and adolescents.

Background: Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities are at increased risk for peer victimization in schools. Due to the deficits in their social, cognitive, and adaptive skills, these children face greater challenges to stand up for themselves thus, facing continued victimization.   Aim: This systematic literature review sought to critically identify the existing literature on predictors and outcomes which are associated with peer victimization in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in a school environment using the Biopsychosocial model. Method: To conduct this study, a systematic search procedure was formulated to retrieve relevant scholarly articles from the chosen databases. Peer reviewed journals were searched to retrieve articles from education, psychology, and social sciences, published in English language between years 2000-2020. Only studies with children and adolescents ages 6 - 21 years were considered. A total of eight articles with five cross-sectional, two cohort, and one case-control studies qualified to answer the research questions. Results: Findings varied across the social and psychological aspects. Social predictors and outcomes were found to be dominant for peer victimization. Internalizing Behaviour Disorders as a whole was identified as a psychological predictor with low self-esteem and depressive feelings as individual predictors and outcomes of peer victimization. Conclusion: Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities are vulnerable to peer victimization due to deficits in disability characteristics. Exposure to peer victimization can pose serious consequences on their social and psychological well-being. Implications for future research and methodological limitations of this study are also discussed.

Bullying can have a negative impact on children’s development andmental health. Studentswith disabilities aremore likely to be targeted for bullying than studentswithout disabilities. In particu- lar, studies have shown that studentswith disabilities are at greater risk of bullying than students without disabilities. In addition, childrenwithdisabilities have higher riskof lowsubjective health. Results showed that therewere significant differences in the dependent variables among four dif- ferent groups of bullying participants (disabled victims, victimswithout disabilities, non victims with disabilitiesandnon-victimswithoutdisabilities).Non-disabledstudentswhowere not bullied had the highest level of subjective health,while the subjective health of disabled students who are not bullied is higher than that of disabled students who are bullied and non-disabled students who are bullied. Thismeans that as the risk of exposure to bullying increases, the subjective health of childrenwith disabilitieswillbefurther lower.Childrenwithdisabilities alone have higher life satisfaction than those with disabilities who and bullied and have higher life satisfaction than those bullied without disabilities. And childrenwithdisabilities aremore likely to report somatic and psychological symptoms than childrenwithout disabilities.Children who were bullied reportedmore somatic symptoms than childrenwho were not bullied. Therefore, schools should establish student violence prevention interventions to reduce peer victimization regardless of students’ disabilities.

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This study describes the consequences as well as risk and protective factors associated with adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs (ATOD) and exposure to peer victimization. Peer victimization has been shown to be a risk factor for ATOD use and it may be important to identify factors that attenuate this relationship in order to pursue and develop preventive interventions. High emotional intelligence (EI) has been found to be associated with lower ATOD use, but the research evidence is mixed. High EI may neutralize the effects of exposure to peer victimization and act as a protective factor against increased ATOD use. Results from this cross-sectional study of 376 middle school students (45% male) found that youth who were victimized were more likely to report ATOD use. Youth who were better at identifying and sharing their emotions were less likely to report ATOD use. Conversely, youth who were better at influencing and socializing with others were more likely to report ATOD use. EI was not found to be protective in the presence of peer victimization. Results are discussed in the context of prevention related to increasing EI and reducing ATOD use. / Public Health