Parents’ Responses to Relational Bullying in New Zealand

<p>Relational bullying is a significant and widespread issue that is experienced by many young people in New Zealand. To implement effective and consistent prevention and intervention strategies, it is crucial to understand the perspectives of everyone involved. However, there is currently limited research on parents’ perspectives of relational bullying. While research in the field of bullying prevention is increasingly focused on the perspectives and responsibility of multiple parties, a significant gap in the literature remains: the perspectives of the parents of children who are involved as perpetrators of bullying, as well as those parents of children who are both bullies as well as victims. The present doctoral research yielded findings describing parents’ responses to their child’s involvement in relational bullying, including those involved in bullying perpetration. This project was comprised of three studies focussing specifically on relational bullying. The first study examined parents’ responses to hypothetical scenarios depicting their child perpetrating or experiencing exclusion, rumour spreading, and manipulation. The second study asked parent participants to reflect on any actual experience they had with supporting their child as a victim or perpetrator of relational bullying. In the third study, participants reflected on their own experiences with relational bullying during their childhood or adolescence, considering the continued impact on their current lives and on their parenting. Data collection was via one anonymous, online survey. These qualitative responses were analysed thematically to produce both individual study findings and overarching themes that reflected the participants’ perspectives. The responses revealed that parents respond to the three distinct forms of relational bullying (exclusion, rumour spreading, and manipulation) in different ways, with some forms of relational bullying viewed as less serious than others. In addition, the findings provide insight into how parents supported their child when they were involved in relational bullying perpetration. Parents responding to their child’s involvement in the perpetration of relational bullying often took action, assisted their child to make amends, and continued to monitor their child’s progress. When parent participants considered their own experiences of relational bullying, they identified being deeply impacted by the bullying at the time it happened, and they explained that it continued to have an ongoing impact on their current lives and on their parenting behaviour with their own children. The findings from the project overall illustrate the need for a cultural shift in the attitudes towards bullying that permeate the New Zealand context.</p>

Parents’ Responses to Relational Bullying in New Zealand

<p>Relational bullying is a significant and widespread issue that is experienced by many young people in New Zealand. To implement effective and consistent prevention and intervention strategies, it is crucial to understand the perspectives of everyone involved. However, there is currently limited research on parents’ perspectives of relational bullying. While research in the field of bullying prevention is increasingly focused on the perspectives and responsibility of multiple parties, a significant gap in the literature remains: the perspectives of the parents of children who are involved as perpetrators of bullying, as well as those parents of children who are both bullies as well as victims. The present doctoral research yielded findings describing parents’ responses to their child’s involvement in relational bullying, including those involved in bullying perpetration. This project was comprised of three studies focussing specifically on relational bullying. The first study examined parents’ responses to hypothetical scenarios depicting their child perpetrating or experiencing exclusion, rumour spreading, and manipulation. The second study asked parent participants to reflect on any actual experience they had with supporting their child as a victim or perpetrator of relational bullying. In the third study, participants reflected on their own experiences with relational bullying during their childhood or adolescence, considering the continued impact on their current lives and on their parenting. Data collection was via one anonymous, online survey. These qualitative responses were analysed thematically to produce both individual study findings and overarching themes that reflected the participants’ perspectives. The responses revealed that parents respond to the three distinct forms of relational bullying (exclusion, rumour spreading, and manipulation) in different ways, with some forms of relational bullying viewed as less serious than others. In addition, the findings provide insight into how parents supported their child when they were involved in relational bullying perpetration. Parents responding to their child’s involvement in the perpetration of relational bullying often took action, assisted their child to make amends, and continued to monitor their child’s progress. When parent participants considered their own experiences of relational bullying, they identified being deeply impacted by the bullying at the time it happened, and they explained that it continued to have an ongoing impact on their current lives and on their parenting behaviour with their own children. The findings from the project overall illustrate the need for a cultural shift in the attitudes towards bullying that permeate the New Zealand context.</p>

Multi-Informant Assessment of Bullying in Austrian Schools

This study explores the agreement of bullying reports from different perspectives. Nominations and (self and peer) ratings of 721 students (50.5% boys, 49.5% girls, aged 9–11), 46 teachers (91.3% female, 8.7% male; Mage = 40.28 years, SDage = 1.6, teaching experience between 2 and 36 years, Mexperience = 15.16, SDexperience = 1.68), 439 mothers, and 363 fathers were analyzed. Measures included a modified version of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim questionnaire (OBVQ) as well as nomination items, with variables on physical and relational bullying and victimization, and frequency of experience. For descriptive analyses, group comparisons and correlations were performed and to test the dimensional structure of the modified Revised OBVQ we fitted a categorical confirmatory factor analysis (CCFA) for all four raters. To estimate the degree of agreement between the four raters, we applied a simple multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analysis in a CCFA framework. Results indicated that teachers are more likely to recognize physical bullying than relational bullying. Significant gender effects were found, with more frequent nominations for boys and a larger gender effect for physical bullying. Overall, teachers reported the highest levels of bullying, and students reported significantly higher levels of victimization compared to the other raters. In terms of bullying, the MTMM model revealed a slightly higher agreement between students and parents than between students and teachers. The findings further indicate a tendency for lower agreement between student and adult reports than among adults’ reports. The notably high agreement between the ratings of mothers and fathers for both bullying and victimization supports the research strategy to include only one parent. Although bullying is assessed from various perspectives, the study does not provide prevalence estimates of bullying in Austria.

Stress reactivity and social cognition in pure and co-occurring early childhood relational bullying and victimization

This study tested the independent effects and interactions of sympathetic nervous system reactivity and hostile attribution biases (HAB) in predicting change in pure and co-occurring relational bullying and victimization experiences over one year. Co-occurring and pure relational bullying and victimization experiences were measured using a dimensional bifactor model, aiming to address methodological limitations of categorical approaches, using data from 300 preschoolers (Mage = 44.70 months, SD = 4.38). Factor scores were then saved and used in nested path analyses with a subset of participants (n = 81) to test main study hypotheses regarding effects of HAB and skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-R). Bifactor models provided good fit to the data at two independent time points. HAB and SCL-R interacted to predict increases in co-occurring relational bullying/victimization with evidence for over- and underarousal pathways.

Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers

Relational bullying in schools is one of the most frequent forms of violence and can have severe negative health impact, e.g. depression. Social exclusion is the most prominent form of relational bullying that can be operationalized experimentally. The present study used MR-based perfusion imaging (pCASL) to investigate the neural signatures of social exclusion and its relationship with individually different extent of previous bullying experience. Twenty-four teenagers reporting bullying experience at different extent were scanned during a virtual ball-tossing (Cyberball game). Our findings showed that social exclusion (relative to social inclusion) activated frontal brain areas: sub- and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (sg/pgACC), left inferior frontal cortex (IFG), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Positive relationship between exclusion-specific signal increase and individually different extents of prior bullying experience was for the first time observed in left IFG and sgACC. This suggests that more frequent prior experience has conditioned greater mentalizing and/or rumination, in order to cope with the situation. While this interpretation remains speculative, the present data show that the experience of being bullied partly sensitizes the neural substrate relevant for the processing of social exclusion.

Gender-sensitive school environment and bullying victimization among adolescent girls: A multilevel study in Nepal

Background Bullying is an understudied global social problem. While school-level factors are a recognized influence on bullying victimization, the elements of a ‘girl-friendly’ school that may reduce the risk of bullying victimization among girls and prevent dropout is understudied in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study used baseline data from the evaluation of the Room-to-Read (RtR) Girls’ Education Program (GEP) in Nepal to assess the relationship of a conceptually grounded gender-equitable school (GES) index with girls’ risk of direct and relational bullying victimization, adjusted for potential confounders at the individual and school levels. Methods The school sample included all 24 RtR GEP schools and 25 community schools attended by girls in a comparison cohort, representing 729 grade six girls with complete outcome data. We employed multilevel negative binomial regression to assess the relationship between the GES score (higher scores indicate greater support for girls), and girls’ risk of peer victimization, controlling for individual- and school-level covariates. Results On average, girls reported 2.84 direct victimizations and 0.27 relational victimizations in the prior week. The first component of the GES index, a generalized measure of school-level support for girls, showed a significant negative relationship with weekly relational bullying victimization in models with all school- and individual-level covariates. In the full model, a one-point higher score on the generalized GES component accounted for a 26% lower risk of relational bullying victimization in the prior week. Conclusion School-level policies, practices, and pedagogy designed to support girls may reduce their exposure to relational aggression, a form of bullying that girls most often perpetrate. In LMICs, the school may be an ideal place to raise awareness about the types and effects of peer bullying and to promote prosocial bystander behavior. Further research is needed to identify factors related to other forms of bullying.

Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts in Chinese Adolescents Involved in Different Sub-types of Bullying: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Bullying tends to peak during adolescence, and it is an important risk factor of self-harm and suicide. However, research on the specific effect of different sub-types of bullying is limited.Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the associations between four common forms of bullying (verbal, physical, relational, and cyber) and self-harm, suicidal ideation (SI), and suicide attempts (SA).Method: This was a cross-sectional study of a sample including 4,241 Chinese students (55.8% boys) aged 11 to 18 years. Bullying involvement, self-harm, SI, and SA were measured via The Juvenile Campus Violence Questionnaire (JCVQ). The association was examined through multinomial logistic regression analysis, adjusted for demographic characteristics and psychological distress.Results: Bullying victimization and perpetration were reported by 18.0 and 10.7% of participants. The prevalence of self-harm, SI, and SA were 11.8, 11.8, and 7.1%, respectively. Relational bullying victimization and perpetration were significantly associated with SI only, SI plus self-harm, and SA. Physical bullying victimization and perpetration were risk factors of self-harm only and SA. Verbal victimization was significantly associated with SI only. Cyber perpetration was a risk factor of SA.Conclusions: The findings highlight the different effects of sub-types of bullying on self-harm and suicidal risk. Anti-bullying intervention and suicide prevention efforts should be prior to adolescents who are involved in physical and relational bullying.