Bullying is a common problem among children and adolescents in which the consequences can be severe. Bullying is associated with a variety of negative outcomes and can lead to a variety of mental and physical health problems. The purpose of this study was to examine forms of bullying behaviors that were most predictive of student-reported bullying and the frequency of student-reported bullying in response to a variety of bullying behaviors. In this study, an archival dataset was utilized. Data collected in the fall of 2012 came from 8387 6th through 12th grade students who attended 124 public middle and high schools in Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Maryland. The web-based bullying survey, designed as a component of a district-wide bullying prevention initiative, was intended to assess the prevalence, type, and social norms associated with bullying and school violence.<br>For the first research question, logistic regression analyses indicated that teasing and name-calling were the most frequent forms of bullying and were the two primary predictors of student-reported bullying. Social and/or relational forms of bullying were overall the most frequently reported forms of bullying. In contrast, physical or direct forms of bullying and cyberbullying were the least frequent forms of bullying reported.<br>For the second research question, a series of chi-square analyses indicated significant differences for all types of bullying behavior and whether or not student reported being bullied. Specifically, compared to student who did not report being bullied in the past month, those students who did report being bullied within the last month were more likely to report (a) being called names, (b) being threatened, (c) being teased or picked on, (d) being pushed or shoved, (e) having emails or messages sent to others about them, (f) having rumors or lied spread about them, (g) being ignored or left on purpose, (h) having sexual comments or gestures made toward them; and (i) having their property stolen. Based on the results of this current study, several different proposals for future research can be proposed, including (a) examination of the changes in bullying behaviors and reporting of bullying longitudinally, from elementary to high school and (b) comparisons between schools with and without bullying prevention programs in regard to type and frequency of student bullying behaviors and student reporting of bullying. / School of Education; / School Psychology / PhD; / Dissertation;

Revictimization, defined as victimization occurring at different points in time, has been found repeatedly in college, community, and clinical samples. Attempts to understand this relation have been theoretically and methodologically limited. Theoretically, most studies have considered only individual level characteristics such as personality traits, and methodologically, the variety of definitions and measures used makes comparisons difficult. This study investigated the effect of homelessness, an exosystem factor, as a moderator of the revictimization relation in a sample of 370 underserved women (191 in prison and 179 seeking healthcare at an urban, public hospital). A series of logistic regressions were conducted to predict adult physical and adult sexual victimization using four different definitions of child sexual abuse and one definition of child physical abuse. Main effects for child abuse, regardless of the definition used, incarceration status and homelessness on both adult physical and adult sexual victimization were consistently found. However, homelessness did not moderate the revictimization relation. The high reported rate of adult physical victimization may have prevented finding an interaction effect, as almost 82% of women reported this experience. Findings underscore the multitude of traumas experienced by this population and the need for primary prevention of child abuse and homelessness.

<p>The current project is the first study to investigate the competence of academically gifted youth across multiple dimensions of the peer system. To date, there is no comprehensive examination of the social functioning of gifted youth, severely limiting what is known about the overall social world of gifted youth and the extent to which the subset of gifted youth with peer problems experience the same adjustment difficulties related to negative peer interactions. By examining how aspects of sociometric status, friendship and social network centrality relate to a myriad of outcome variables, the current study permits a comprehensive investigation of the risk profile associated with problematic peer relations among gifted youth within the adjustment domains (behavioral, academic and psychological functioning). Participants included 327 adolescents, 149 identified as gifted, who were initially assessed in the 7th grade and were then reassessed 2 years later. </p><p>Consistent with prior research, findings from the current student provided evidence that academic giftedness was generally associated with more positive peer relations as well as more positive functioning across behavioral, academic and adjustment domains when compared to non-gifted adolescents. However, findings from the current study did not find evidence suggesting that gifted youth experience significantly less peer problems than their non-gifted peers. As such, the current study substantiates predictions that there are indeed subgroups of gifted youth who experience peer problems and they were found to be similarly at risk as non-gifted adolescents with peer problems regarding negative behavioral, academic and psychological adjustment. However, the most alarming finding revealed that the negative effects of being rejected were more pronounced for gifted students, who were the most victimized students in the entire sample, even more than non-gifted peers who were rejected. Findings from the current study highlight the complexity of the social world of gifted adolescents and underscore the importance for future research to continue examining the social difficulties of gifted youth. Limitations and implications of these results are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

Peer aggression is a significant problem among adolescents; it is relatively common and frequently experienced among adolescents. Recently, there has been growing attention to the occurrence and impact of bullying on adolescent's well being at school. There is still a lot to learn about why certain adolescents are targets for bullying. This study explores how certain personality traits, behaviors, and social status may be predictors for those who are targeted as victims of peer aggression. Students in three middle schools and one junior high school from three different school districts in Texas were asked to participate in this study. The sample consisted of 233 students. Students were both males and females who were attending 6th, 7th, and 8th grade and were between the ages of 12 and 15. Data was aggregated for each participating student from demographic information collected from the Cover Sheet, with participant demographics, Bullying/Victimization Scale (BVS), Behavior Assessment System for Children - Self-Report (BASC-SRP), and Social Support Scale for Children and Adolescents (Social Support - CFS). The data obtained supported the expectation that adolescents who presented with symptoms of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, high external locus of control, low self-reliance, and high sense of inadequacy are more likely to become victims of peer aggression than adolescents who are more socially competent, more psychologically well-adjusted, and who have a higher internal locus of control. Additionally, adolescents who show signs of social stress may also be more likely to become victims of peer aggression. This is an important step in the needed research because the victim is often overlooked when peer aggression is occurring. Identification of potential victims and assistance with development of their social skills may aid them in avoiding acts of peer aggression.

The concept of social support has been found to be a protective factor in women's intimate partner violence victimization. However, little is known about the relationship between women's social support and their intimate partner violence perpetration. Research evidence demonstrates that women's perpetration of violence is surprisingly frequent, particularly in women younger than age 30. This study investigated the role of social support in heterosexual women's use and receipt of non-lethal aggression against an intimate partner among 673 female college students. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

This thesis explores distress and reactions after crime by a previously unknown perpetrator in a two-year perspective. Distress was investigated at eight months and two years, using quantitative and qualitative methods. The specific aims of the thesis were (I) to explore the level of distress and the role of risk factors for post-traumatic and general symptoms eight months post crime, (II) to examine the natural course of adjustment at a two-year follow-up in female and male victims of interpersonal violence, III) to investigate the relationship between shame, guilt, and distress among 35 victims of a single severe violent crime, and (IV) to use qualitative analysis to describe individual post-crime trajectories. The following questionnaires were used: Symptom Check List 90 (Derogatis &amp; Cleary, 1977), Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (Mollica et al., 1992), the Test for Self-Conscious Affect (Tagney et al., 1989). Data were also obtained via semi-structured interviews, including the use of visual analog scales for subjective mental health measures. The participants in paper I were male and female Swedish adult victims of reported interpersonal violence eight months earlier. Participants were between 18 and 66 years of age (n=41). At follow-up (Paper II) the sample size had decreased (n=35). In paper III, adult victims (aged 18-64) of reported interpersonal violence were assessed within two weeks of reported crime (n=35). In paper IV a subsample of 11 adult crime victims were drawn from among the participants from papers I and II. Paper I showed that women reported more distress than men. Prior trauma, adverse childhood, female sex, previous psychiatric history, and unemployment were all associated with more distress. Peritraumatic reactions (especially secondary emotions following cognitive appraisals after the event) predicted the three core PTSD symptoms and comorbid conditions, together with female sex and psychiatric history. Paper II confirmed most of the risk factors at eight months and that, in general, no further recovery took place between eight months and two years. Paper III showed that shame-proneness and event-related shame were highly intercorrelated and related to higher symptoms levels, while the guilt measures were unrelated to each other as well as to symptoms. Paper IV explored narratives of victimization; the results suggest that individual differences within the same trajectories of recovery should be expected.

This dissertation introduces a social cognitive model of bystander behavior and examines the mediating role of self-efficacy on the relationship between bullying victimization and negative outcomes. Based on Bandura’s (1986; 2001) social cognitive theory, this model utilizes two frameworks for understanding bystander behavior in bullying: group process framework (Salmivalli, 2010) and the bystander motivation framework (Thornberg et al., 2012). A research agenda is presented based on the key elements of the proposed model, including bystander agency, bystander self-efficacy, bystander moral disengagement, and bystander collective efficacy. The research study investigated self-efficacy for coping with bullying victimization and its mediating role on the relationship between bullying victimization and the outcomes of depression, anxiety, and perceptions of school safety. The Bullying Victimization Self-Efficacy Scale (BVSES; Kim et al., 2010), the Student Survey of Bullying Behaviors – Revised 2 (SSBB-R2; Varjas et al., 2008) and the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition (BASC-2; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2004) were administered to 551 elementary and middle school students in a southeastern urban school district. Using structural equation modeling, a measurement model was used to confirm the factor structure of the latent variables used in the study (i.e., victimization, the BVSES scales, depression, anxiety, and school safety). Then, the hypothesized structure model was used to determine the mediating role of self-efficacy on the relationships of bullying victimization with depression, anxiety, and school safety. An alternative model was tested where depression, anxiety, and school safety were mediators of the relationship between victimization and the BVSES scales as a comparison for the hypothesized model. The measurement model yielded a good model fit, deeming it acceptable for the structure model analysis. The hypothesized and alternative models yielded a good model fit, and significant mediation effects were found in both models. However, the low magnitude suggests that self-efficacy had a relatively weak mediation effect, which may be due to the strength of the relationship between victimization and the outcome variables. This strong direct effect suggests that self-efficacy may not be a substantial mediator influencing the relationship between victimization and the outcome variables. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Peer violence perpetration and victimization are the most common types of violence among youths (Swahn et al., 2008). This study determined the associations between peer violence attitudes and involvement in peer violence perpetration and peer violence victimization among boys and girls in high-risk urban community. Analyses were based on data from the 2004 Youth Violence Survey, administered to over 80% of public school students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 (N = 4131) in a high-risk urban community. Chi-square and logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the associations between attitudes and involvement in violent behaviors after controlling for demographic characteristics and potential confounders (e.g., child maltreatment, substance use, weapon carrying, and efficacy to avoid violence). Results show that among all youths, attitudes supporting boys hitting boys significantly increased the odds of peer violence perpetration (AOR: 1.48; 95% CI = 1.13, 1.95). However, stratified analyses for boys and girls show that attitudes supporting boys hitting boys increased the odds of peer violence perpetration for girls only (AOR: 1.57; 95% CI = 1.04, 2.37). The findings demonstrate associations between attitudes and actual involvement in violent behaviors, but they need to be further explored. Additional research is needed to determine how attitude modifications can be incorporated into youth violence prevention programs.

No description available.

There are a number of issues within the fear of crime literature, such as problems defining and measuring fear of crime, which continue to exist. Thus, the first aim of this thesis was to empirically test a new fear of crime model that consists of three components: fear of victimization (emotive), perceived risk (cognitive) and constrained behaviour (behavioural). The multiple component theory posits that a reciprocal relationship exists between the components that contribute to people feeling threatened by criminal victimization (also referred to as the threat of victimization). Past research has also indicated that gender is always a significant predictor of fear of crime, and therefore was included in the test to assess if women continue to feel threatened by victimization more than men in the new model. Finally two common theories used to explain why women fear crime more than men; specifically gender construction that equates femininity with vulnerability and masculinity with invulnerability and prior experience with intimate partner violence and stalking, were explored. The data came from the Statistics Canada General Social Survey 2004: Cycle 18, which is a Canadian telephone survey that measures fear of crime as well as various types of criminal victimization. A quantitative analysis was done using multiple logistic regressions to assess all three objectives. Results for this thesis indicate that a reciprocal relationship exists between all three components of the threat of victimization and must continue to be measured as separate constructs. Perceived risk and constrained behaviour are particularly influenced by gender construction and intimate partner violence and stalking victimization. It is concluded that accurate and consistent measures need to be created for each of the components of the threat of victimization to facilitate validity, replication and comparison. As well, (in)vulnerability linked to masculinity and femininity, appear to have negative implications for both women and men in relation to the threat of victimization, which need to be addressed through education and active resistance.