Ungdomar är mer utsatta för misshandel och olaga hot än vuxna samtidigt som brott mot unga anmäls mer sällan. Därför är det viktigt att studera hur ungdomars tendenser att polisanmäla brott kan ökas. Forskning visar att positiva erfarenheter av, samt vissa kunskaper om polisiärt arbete är relaterat till positiva attityder gentemot polisen. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om ökade kunskaper genom ett informationstillfälle med polisen påverkar ungdomars attityder. Experimentgruppen hade efter att de fått information positivare attityder till polisen än innan, samt positivare än kontrollgruppen som inte fått någon information. Flickorna utvecklade positivare attityder till polisen än pojkarna. Främsta anledningen att polisanmäla var uppfattningen av brottets allvar. Resultatet generaliseras med försiktighet med tanke på deltagarnas homogena sociala och etniska bakgrund. Framtida forskning behövs kring huruvida attityder relaterar till ökade anmälningstendenser. Även fördjupade studier kring könsskillnader behövs för att se vad dessa skillnader beror på.

Cyberbullying is a problem that has emerged as a byproduct of modern day technologies. This novel form of peer aggression occurs when one or more individuals use a technological medium for the purposes of threatening or harming others. Given that cyberbullying is a relatively new problem in Canada, research remains in its preliminary stages. Previous studies conducted in large urban centers in Alberta and Quebec have suggested that cyberbullying frequently occurs among middle years students. However, the characteristics of cyberbullying among rural students and students from other Canadian provinces are yet to be determined. For these reasons, the purpose of this study was to explore cyberbullying amongst students from rural and urban schools in Saskatchewan. More specifically, this study investigated the following questions:<p>1.To what extent did youth experience cyberbullying? <p>2.What were the characteristics of cyberbullying?<p>3.How did students respond to cyberbullying? <p>4.To what extent did parents and teachers become involved with cyberbullying incidents? <p>Furthermore, how did students think these adults should have responded?<p>To answer these questions, 396 students from a large public school division in central Saskatchewan completed an anonymous paper pencil questionnaire. Among the grades 7 to 9 students sampled, 34.6% admitted they cyber-bullied others and 49.5% said they were victims of cyberbullying. Further, the majority (69.4%) of the students reported that they knew someone who had been cyber-bullied. No significant differences were found between urban and rural students experiences with cyberbullying. However, significant gender differences were found as well as significant correlations between cyberbullying involvement and student grade level, frequency of computer use, school size, and school type. <p>Unfortunately, the majority of cyber-bully victims and bystanders chose not to report the incident to adults. Victims of cyberbullying reported a variety of negative outcomes, especially anger and sadness. Students offered many suggestions for the prevention and intervention of cyberbullying. In particular, students thought teachers should educate their class about cyberbullying and parents should talk to their children about the issue.

Although about half of all rape victims are adolescents, the bulk of the research on sexual victimization is focused on college or community samples of adult women. As such, little is known about adolescent risk of sexual victimization. Adolescence is an important developmental phase in life, in which an individual undergoes major social and biological changes. These changes may make them more susceptible to environmental characteristics, such as family climate, compared to adults. Environmental factors may influence risk taking among adolescents, which may increase the risk of sexual victimization. The theory of social support can be useful in understanding why some young individuals are sexually victimized and others are not. Data for the analysis is derived from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The current study uses the in-home interviews from Wave I, Wave II, and Wave IV of Add Health. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between social support, risky behavior, and sexual victimization. Specifically, whether risky behavior mediates the relationship between adolescent sexual victimization and social support will be examined.

To explain delinquency, General Strain Theory (GST) focuses on negative relationships with others. As one type of victimization, exposure to violence is significantly related to juvenile crime and substance abuse. In addition, victimized adolescents commonly experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, little research has investigated the mediating role of PTSD in the association between violent victimization and juvenile delinquency. Using data from the National Survey of Adolescents (1995), the present study examines the direct effects of sexual assault, physical assault, and witnessing violence on inner- (alcohol and illicit drug use) and outer-directed behaviors (property and violent crime). This study also examines the mediating role of PTSD, based on an overall scale of PTSD as well as the individual components of PTSD (re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal). Logistic regression analyses and the Sobel test were used to examine the hypotheses. Findings in the study provide support for the proposition of GST that violent victimization increases the risk of juvenile crime and substance use. Findings also indicate that exposure to violence results in a higher probability of exhibiting PTSD symptoms. Finally, PTSD clusters partially mediate the link between violent victimization and outer-directed responses. However, the expected mediating effect between violent victimization and inner-directed responses was not found. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.

The present study examined developmental changes in the prevalence, stability, and developmental pathways associated with Bully/Victim status in order to increase our understanding of this high-risk group. In addition, this study investigated changes within individuals and their social context that are associated with moving into, or out of, the Bully/Victim group. This study was guided by the theory of developmental contextualism, which suggests that bullying involvement is likely to change over the course of development and that these changes are likely related to changes within individuals and their social contexts. One thousand six hundred seventy-seven elementary school students and 1402 high school students participated in this longitudinal study. Data were collected three times from each sample. Developmental changes in Bully/Victim status were assessed through a series of log-linear analyses and changes in individual and their peer relationships associated with transitions in bullying status were assessed through a series of multinomial logistic regression analyses. The results supported developmental contextual theory. Bully/Victim status became less prevalent over the course of development and was particularly unstable over three points of time in both elementary and high school. Individuals who became part of the Bully/Victim group were likely to have a history of involvement in bullying, and those who recovered from the Bully/Victim group usually maintained some sort of bullying involvement. When youth transitioned between types of bullying, they became more similar to the bullying status group that they entered in terms of individual characteristics. In addition, changes in bullying status were associated with changing peer groups. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-27 16:38:24.52

Over the past three decades, childhood bullying research has developed. Although bullying was first understood as an individual problem, researchers now understand that bullying is a relationship problem. Children come to a social exchange with their own cognitions and coping strategies, but are also impacted by their peers. Developmental contextualism forms the macro level framework of these studies and states that change occurs reciprocally and across many levels including the individual, interpersonal, community, and society. Social cognitive theory (and social information processing, in particular) helps at the individual and interpersonal levels in understanding the role cognitions play in affecting children’s responses in social exchanges. The series of papers in this dissertation focus on: (1) How attributions and coping styles interact within victimized children and how that affects victimization; (2) How attributions and coping styles are associated in children who bully others and how that interaction affects bullying behaviour; and (3) How children’s friendships protect or put them at risk for victimization. Overall, results suggest that children’s attributions and coping are directly associated with victimization and bullying, but do not work together in a mediational relationship. Rather specific types of attributions and coping strategies are related to involvement in bullying and victimization both within and across time and differences exist between boys and girls. With regards to friendships, the identity and communication skills of one’s friends appear to be important. Findings suggest the need for interventions that teach victimized children and their friends how to cope effectively with victimization and communicate with each other about their needs. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2009-12-29 15:17:14.814

Bullying is a serious and common problem in Canadian schools. Despite three decades of comprehensive research on this complex behavioural problem, much remains to be understood. The general purpose of the current studies was to comprehensively examine bullying from an ecological perspective and the roles that school climate and peer processes play in the development of this behaviour, in order to elucidate mechanisms for intervention. The first study was a multilevel analysis of the relative importance of individual and school characteristics in bullying in Canadian schools. In a second study, we examined the experiences of peers who witnessed bullying incidents in order to investigate whether there were factors that predicted a decrease in witness behaviour. Finally, we conducted an evaluation of a peer-mediated bullying prevention program using a pre/post controlled study design. We assessed the impact of this program on behaviour, socioemotional skills, and school climate. Overall, our findings were consistent with the view that bullying is a problem of destructive relationships that needs to be addressed from this perspective. We found that relationships among peers and adults at school contributed to the overall climate of a school, and an overall climate of peer connectedness was associated with less bullying. Provictim attitudes and emotional supportiveness predicted change in bystander behaviour, although the nature of these changes differed for boys and girls. Finally, we did not find evidence of an effect of the prevention program on bullying behaviour or school climate, and we discuss the lack of findings with regard to program implementation and future program evaluations. This research has implications for understanding the influence of peers and peer group processes on the development of bullying. It is our hope that these studies will contribute important information to the bullying literature to expand our knowledge of the ways in which school climate and peers affect and are affected by bullying and victimization. In turn, this information may help to inform intervention efforts and encourage future program evaluation research and research examining the mechanisms by which we might mobilize peers to behave in ways that could help to stop bullying and victimization. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-21 11:33:00.394

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether women who have been victimized can have a decrease in their negative affect by being exposed to the suggestion of one of two dimensions of forgiveness. The study also examined the moderating effect of several personality variables on participants reactions to the intervention. Seventy-nine women were given several personality and affect questionnaires before and after they listened to instructions for either granting forgiveness (interpersonal), letting go of their negative affect (intrapsychic), or relaxation (control). Results indicated that focusing on granting forgiveness was associated with more negative affect than the other two interventions. Main effects and moderating effects were found for certain personality characteristics such as self esteem and self efficacy. These findings provide conflicting support for the use of forgiveness therapy with victimized women by suggesting that some benefits may be gained, but personality characteristics should be considered before beginning this type of therapy.

Bullying has severe consequences for school-aged adolescents who have experienced repeated victimization and for the families as well. While there is a considerable body of research on bullying and its effects on victims, very little research has been devoted to studying the experiences and resistance of the targeted young people and their families in the bullying situations. The literature on bullying characterizes victims as unable to defend themselves; this depiction is limited, simplistic, and one-dimensional. This dissertation presents an alternate view, focusing on the experiences and responses of victims and their families. The thesis draws on a poststructural view and a response-based framework to present a new perspective on the victims of bullying—a perspective that contrasts with the common depiction of “helpless, powerless victims” and foregrounds the personal agency of young people who have responded to bullying. Data for this study was collected in the form of narratives from the families and eleven to fifteen year old school adolescents who have been targets of ongoing bullying. The sample consisted of four families and five adolescents. The interview questions were based on Allan Wade’s response-based approach. The participants’ narratives focused on their responses to bullying. Each narrative was read thoroughly for themes related to the skills and the knowledge adolescents have used in responding to peer aggression. Similarly, parents’ narratives were examined for themes of their responses to the bullying of their children. The conclusion from the findings indicated that the parents and adolescents responded to bullying in many small but prudent and resourceful ways.

Childhood aggression is a pervasive problem that has serious consequences for peer relationships. The relation between aggression and peer victimization has been studied extensively. Research suggests that these two constructs become intertwined in a maladaptive cycle as children age. Yet, not all aggressive children are victimized by their peers nor does aggression have the same consequences for all children. The current study seeks to investigate under what circumstances aggression leads to peer victimization and suggests that social competence is a critical moderator of this relationship. Previous research has found that levels of social competence vary among aggressive children. However, the consequences of aggression (i.e., peer victimization) at varying levels of social competence has not been previously studied. In a sample of 369 children in grades 2 through 5, the short-term longitudinal relations between physical aggression and peer victimization, and the moderating effects of social competence were examined over two time points. Social competence moderated the relation between aggression and peer victimization: At low levels of social competence, the relation between aggression and peer victimization was not significant. At moderate and high levels of social competence, a relation between aggression and peer victimization was significant. Findings demonstrate the importance of fostering social competence and prosocial conflict resolution strategies among aggressive children and intervening early in development in order to prevent the occurrence and consequences of childhood aggression. / Graduate