“We were Sad and We were Angry”: A Systematic Review of Parents’ Perspectives on Bullying

Cross-condition risk and protective factors for psychosocial distress in parents and carers of children and young people with appearance-affecting conditions and injuries

Alongside typical parenting challenges, initial condition-specific research suggests thadifferent experiences and support needs.t parents of children with different visible differences may experience similar psychosocial difficulties. Despite this, large-scale cross-condition research to identify risk and protective factors for parental distress and psychosocial adjustment has been lacking. Two hundred and nine parents and carers of children with a range of visible differences completed an online survey comprised of standardised outcome measures, study-specific measures, and open-ended questions. Multiple regression modelling identified possible risk and protective factors, and data collected via open-ended questions were analysed using content analysis. Findings support themes previously identified in small-scale cross-condition qualitative research with parents of children with visible differences. Risk factors for parental negative affect and stress included parental reports of the noticeability of their child's visible difference and teasing. Protective factors included good parent-child communication, self-compassion, knowledge of their child's condition and satisfaction with treatment. The risk and protective factors identified provide important insight into the experiences of this parent population and indicate possible avenues for psychosocial intervention.

Parents' attitudes, perceptions and coping strategies regarding school bullying

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to record parents' knowledge and attitudes towards bullying experienced by their children and to explore the strategies they choose to manage bullying incidents.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted. The study population consisted of parents of children who have experienced bullying in a primary or secondary school classroom. The "Parents' Strategies to Cope with Bullying" questionnaire was used to collect data. Regarding parents' coping with bullying, the strategy "Support and advice to the child" scored the highest and the strategy "Social support and information" the next highest.

RESULTS

Of the parents, 44.3 % had received some information/education regarding the phenomenon of bullying with the most important source of information being reading. According to the results of multivariate linear regression, mothers more often applied the strategy "social support and information" (Coefficient b=0.9, 95 % CI for b=0.7 to 1.1, p<0.001) and parents with lower educational level more often applied the strategy "avoidance" (Coefficient b=-0.5, 95 % CI for b=-0.8 to -0.2, p=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

School bullying remains a major worldwide phenomenon over time. Although parents choose to support their children, they do not receive information and training on how to manage bullying from a formal institution, making the need for such programs imperative.

Children's bullying victimization and maternal suicidal ideation among multicultural families in South Korea: Heterogeneity by family socioeconomic status

RATIONALE

Children from multicultural families in Korea are vulnerable to bullying victimization. Despite growing evidence on the mental health consequences of bullying victimization for victims, little is known about the spillover effects on their immigrant mothers.

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the association between children's bullying victimization and their immigrant mothers' suicidal ideation. The potential moderating role of family socioeconomic status was also investigated.

METHODS

Using nine waves of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study spanning from 2011 to 2019 (N = 1466), this study estimated individual fixed effects models to control for unobserved individual-level heterogeneity. Interaction models were used to investigate potential heterogeneity by family socioeconomic status, including maternal education, household income, and maternal occupational status.

RESULTS

Fixed effects estimates revealed that children's bullying victimization is associated with an increased likelihood of suicidal ideation among marriage migrant mothers (b = 0.012, p < 0.05), even after controlling for unobserved time-invariant confounders as well as a set of time-varying covariates. Family socioeconomic status moderated this association. The association between children's bullying victimization and immigrant mothers' suicidal ideation was stronger for those with low levels of education and household income. No such moderating effects were observed for maternal occupation.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study suggest that efforts to address the mental health consequences of bullying victimization among multicultural family children should extend beyond the victim to their immigrant mothers. When developing interventions to reduce suicidal ideation among immigrant mothers whose children have been victimized, policymakers may wish to consider the moderating role of family socioeconomic status.

Feasibility of a Bullying Bystander Intervention (STAC) Parent Module for Rural Schools

The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of parent training designed as a companion module to a bullying bystander intervention (STAC) for middle school students in rural communities. Parents (N = 23) invited from three rural middle schools viewed a parent training and completed measures to assess limited efficacy through immediate program outcomes (e.g., knowledge, confidence, self-efficacy, attitudes, behavioral intentions) and program feasibility, as well as participated in focus groups to provide feedback about program acceptability, demand, practicality, and online delivery adaptation. Parents reported increases in knowledge and confidence in supporting their adolescents to intervene in bullying situations, confidence and comfort in managing bullying, bullying self-efficacy, communication self-efficacy, responsibility to actively engage in bullying prevention, and anti-bullying attitudes from pre-training to post-training. Parents also reported behavioral intentions to use strategies they learned to support their adolescents to intervene in bullying situations. Further, parents' responses suggested high levels of program acceptability, as well as interest in an interactive, self-paced online parent training. Themes from focus groups (n = 12) revealed a need for bullying prevention training for both students and parents in rural communities and found the training to be useful, easy to understand, and relevant and appropriate for their community. Parents identified barriers including cost, time, program flexibility, and the importance of parent buy-in. Parents also provided feedback specific to an online training, including a preference for a smartphone application and design elements to increase engagement. Implications for program development for rural communities are discussed.

Bullying victimization and internalizing and externalizing problems in school-aged children: The mediating role of sleep disturbance and the moderating role of parental attachment

BACKGROUND

Studies have shown that bullying victimization may be related to internalizing and externalizing problems; however, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains unknown. This study explored the mediating role of sleep disturbance and the moderating role of parental attachment.

METHODS

A total of 1543 Chinese primary school students (M age = 8.92 years, SD1.7 years; range, 6-12) completed bullying victimization, sleep disturbance, and parental attachment measures, and provided information on their parents' occupations. The parents or guardians (n = 1995) also completed ratings on their children's internalizing and externalizing problems.

RESULTS

It was found that bullying victimization directly affected internalizing and externalizing problems and also influenced sleep disturbance. Regardless of the parent's socioeconomic status, parental attachment was found to moderate the relationship between bullying victimization and internalizing problems.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings contribute to understanding the partial mediating mechanism of sleep disturbance in the association between bullying victimization and internalizing and externalizing problems. The protective role of parental attachment proved central to preventing internalizing problems in bullied children. Intervention programs that enhance parental attachment and improve sleep quality could assist in mitigating the impact of bullying victimization on internalizing or externalizing problems.

Narcissistic Sociopathy in Global Autocratic Leaders: Arrested Development, Obsessive Demand for Power, and the Emergence of Unlawful Hybrid Wars

There are several reasons why war occurs. The most lethal wars are those caused by 1 man's decisions solely driven by an obsessive need for power. With disregard for International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention, these wars, referred to as hybrid warfare, purposefully target civilians directly resulting in millions of deaths, injuries, mass migration, and other severe global and public health consequences. The purpose of this commentary is to investigate the developmental nature of those decision-makers and the consequences of their acts of aggression both locally and globally. There is a clear relationship between the psychological developments of individuals with narcissistic and psychopathological disorders and the implications of an abnormal progression of these individuals and their obsessive desire for singular leadership, which seriously impacts health-care security and its essential elements provided by international humanitarian law and Geneva Convention. Current double standards of the West allow narcissistic sociopaths and autocratic leaders to neglect international law, especially the so-called international humanitarian law. This double standard must be ceased and replaced by an international investigative system with universal standards, a special tribunal covering hybrid war crimes as well as the crime of aggression, and to prevent future leaders from choosing the same strategies.

Does Bullying Occur behind Closed Doors? Agreement of Bullying Reports between Parents and Children and Its Differential Associations with Child Outcomes

The present study was aimed at examining the level of agreement between parent and child perceptions of sibling and peer bullying (victimization and perpetration), and investigating whether any differential associations with child emotional and conduct problems could be identified across raters. The actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was utilized in order to statistically account for the non-independence of the parent-child dyad. The study was based on a sample of 142 parent-child dyads (children: M_age = 12.3 years; parents: M_age = 44.4 years) and employed an online survey design. Bullying experiences and child outcomes were assessed via parent- and self-report. Intraclass correlation analysis revealed a moderate level of agreement between parent- and child-reports of sibling and peer bullying victimization. Low to moderate levels of parent-child agreement emerged for sibling perpetration and low agreement for peer perpetration. Moreover, APIMs found that parent- and child-reports of bullying were differentially associated with child adjustment. The results of this study suggest that child- and parent data each add additional and unique information into the big picture. Thus, our findings argue for the utility of integrating parent and child perspectives simultaneously in research and clinical practice, in order to uncover the complex reality of child functioning in the context of the family system.

Digital sextortion: Internet predators and pediatric interventions

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Sextortion is defined as the act of coercing people into sending explicit images of themselves and subsequently blackmailing victims with the public release of said images. Prosecutions of sextortion cases involving minors have increased almost two-fold in the past 5 years. The purpose of this review is to explore the literature regarding the behavior of both victims and perpetrators, the effects on victims, and the support resources available for clinicians, victims, and parents.

RECENT FINDINGS

Sextortion begins as an unassuming request for personal pictures and quickly escalates. Minors targeted by predators fear both punishment by guardians and the social consequences that follow the release of their explicit pictures. This cycle of victimization endangers minors and may lead to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression. Recently, sextortion cases have risen to the forefront of national attention through the mainstream media with celebrities revealed as both perpetrators and victims. This higher visibility of sextortion highlights the importance of reviewing recent research regarding minors and their online behavior and the tactics of perpetrators.

SUMMARY

Sextortion, an extreme form of cyber abuse, endangers minors and may lead to anxiety and depression. Pediatricians should be familiar with the concept of sextortion and discuss its dangers and available resources with parents and minors.

Children's bullying involvement and maternal depressive symptoms

Bullying among school-age children is a public health issue in the United States. Although research and policy recommendations emphasize parental responsibility for preventing and dealing with children's bullying involvement, either as victims or perpetrators, we know little about how parents' mental health is linked to children's bullying involvement. We examine three questions on the association between children's bullying involvement and maternal depressive symptoms: (a) Does children's bullying victimization or perpetration increase maternal depressive symptoms?; (b) Do maternal depressive symptoms increase the risk of children bullying or being bullied by other children?; and (c) Do both directions of the associations vary by maternal education level, a key indicator of parenting resources which may buffer the intergenerational stress proliferation? Using panel data from the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 963), we conduct cross-lagged structural equation models to examine bidirectional associations between children's bullying involvement as victims or perpetrators and maternal depressive symptoms across three years when children were third, fifth, and sixth graders in 2001, 2003, and 2004, respectively. Controlling for concurrent associations among children's bullying victimization, perpetration, and maternal depressive symptoms, children's bullying victimization in third grade increases depressive symptoms for mothers without college degrees in fifth grade, whereas children's bullying perpetration in third grade increases depressive symptoms for mothers with college degrees in fifth grade. Regardless of maternal education levels, maternal depressive symptoms in children's third and fifth grade years increase the odds of children bullying or being bullied by other children in subsequent years. These findings underscore the need to take parents' mental health into account to prevent or solve issues concerning children's bullying involvement.

Parents' Feelings, Coping Strategies and Sense of Parental Self-Efficacy When Dealing With Children's Victimization Experiences

Background: Accumulating evidence strongly suggests that bullying victimization poses a major risk for children's and adolescents' socioemotional development. Despite the key role parents play in their child's ability to cope with bullying, very few studies have focused on parents' reactions to their children's victimization. The current study examined parents' feelings, coping strategies, and sense of parental self-efficacy subsequent to their children's victimization. Methods: The sample was composed of 217 parents of children aged 7 to 18 years who had been victims of bullying. Parents were requested to fill in a self-report survey measuring their responses to their child's bullying victimization in the last 12 months, the feelings they experienced, the coping strategies they implemented, and their sense of parental self-efficacy in dealing with the situation. Results: Parents of victimized children experienced notable emotional distress and an array of complex emotions. A unique pattern of associations was revealed between feelings and coping tactics. Specifically, feelings of guilt were predictive of parents adopting avoidance and self-blame strategies and negatively associated with providing support to the child. Parents' feelings of sadness positively predicted coping by providing child support and negatively linked to avoidance coping. Anger was predictive of retaliative coping, whereas worry contributed to child restrictions. Providing support to the child and retaliation positively contributed to parental self-efficacy in dealing with the victimization events, whereas seeking social support was negatively associated with parents' sense of efficacy. Discussion: It is suggested that bullying prevention efforts should include parents and address the complex feelings they experience, especially feelings of guilt and anger, which were found to contribute to a maladaptive coping reaction.

Working with parents to counteract bullying: A randomized controlled trial of an intervention to improve parent-school cooperation

This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at improving parent-school cooperation in counteracting bullying. Using a randomized controlled trial, data of teachers, parents of non-victimized children, and children themselves were collected at 13 intervention and 14 control schools (grades 3-6, N at post-assessment: teachers = 83, parents = 153, children = 2,510) at two time points (time lag about 6 months). Results showed positive effects of the intervention for some aspects of the primary outcomes: parents' and teachers' attitudes and efforts, whereas no effects were found of teachers' or parents' competences in counteracting bullying. No intervention effects were found for secondary outcomes: children's self-reported bullying, victimization, well-being, and self-esteem. The findings indicate that, due to the intervention, teachers and parents were more aligned and able to cooperate, even within the short time of the intervention: one school year. This is the first essential step to systematically addressing parents' role in tackling bullying; future research is needed to examine the long-term effects of parent and school interventions in enhancing the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs.

Cyberbullying Victimization and Perpetration, Connectedness, and Monitoring of Online Activities: Protection from Parental Figures

Cyberbullying victimization and perpetration are associated with poor mental health outcomes for adolescents, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, and suicide ideation. Although most cyberbullying occurs at home, few interventions have been developed for parents of adolescents. We examined parental connectedness and parental online monitoring in relation to cyberbullying victimization and perpetration, with the goal of understanding how parents buffer young teens from involvement in cyberbullying. We leveraged data from an existing study involving three racially and ethnically diverse middle schools in a metropolitan area in the Midwest of the U.S. (n = 570). In the spring of sixth grade, students reported on cyberbullying involvement, parental connectedness, and parental monitoring. Greater parental connectedness was related to a lower likelihood of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration in logistic regression models. Parental monitoring of online activities was not related to cyberbullying victimization but was marginally related to a lower likelihood of cyberbullying perpetration. Results suggest that cyberbullying prevention programs should consider ways to foster parent/youth connectedness.

Brazilian caregivers' conception on child bullying

BACKGROUND

Bullying is a complex social phenomenon, which is common in peer relationships and is influenced by different individual and contextual characteristics. Despite broad knowledge on the importance of the family for children's development, many studies about bullying neglect the family's active role. In that sense, investigating caregivers' conception about bullying can be an important strategy to promote effective interventions. The objective in this study was to analyze the caregivers' conception on the phenomenon of bullying, specifically regarding its occurrence, motivations, and risks for the children's development, and verify if this conception is consistent with the findings of the international literature. The study participants were 401 caregivers (77.1% were mothers) of children in elementary education at Brazilian schools. An online questionnaire was used with closed questions and an open question on what the caregivers considered bullying. The data were analyzed based on descriptive statistics and quantitative textual analysis.

RESULTS

Caregivers have good knowledge on signs and forms of coping with bullying. On the other hand, they tend not to recognize their children as potential aggressors and do not mention the family's role as a risk factor for the occurrence of this type of problem.

CONCLUSIONS

The results allowed us to understand what Brazilian caregivers think about bullying and how they act or would act towards situations of bullying and reveals a relevant gap on this comprehension.

Parents’ Responses to Coping with Bullying: Variations by Adolescents’ Self-Reported Victimization and Parents’ Awareness of Bullying Involvement

Bullying has been recognized as an important risk factor for mental health. A growing number of researchers have encouraged parents to work collaboratively with schools to prevent and intervene in bullying situations. This study explores the relationship between parents’ awareness of bullying involvement, adolescents’ self-reported victimization, and six possible parents’ responses to their child’s victimization. The participants were 1044 seventh–tenth grade students and their parents. Logistic regressions analyses were applied to determine if parents’ awareness of victimization and adolescents’ self-reporting of victimization were associated with parents’ responses to bullying victimization. The results showed that parents’ awareness of bullying and adolescents’ self-reported victimization were only associated with the “defends herself/himself” and “talks to bully” response. In other words, the parents who believe their child has been bullied are less likely to encourage their children to talk with the bully, and when children are victimized, it is less likely that their parents will encourage them to defend themselves or talk with the bully.

"As a Parent You Become a Tiger": Parents Talking about Bullying at School

Bullying at school can be a distressing experience for children. It is also likely to be distressing for their parents. In spite of this, research in the field of school bullying and peer victimisation has tended to overlook the experience of parents when their child is bullied. This study explored school bullying from the parent's perspective. Twenty-one parents took part in semi-structured focus groups and interviews to share their experiences. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts identified two main themes: 'perceived institutional factors' and 'being a good parent'. It was found that parents viewed their principal role as protecting their child; they referred to this as an instinct and fundamental to them being a good parent. However, during their attempts to help their child, many parents talked about difficulties working with schools and this triggered frustration and distrust towards teachers. The findings highlight the importance of communication between parents and teachers and ensuring that parents are kept informed of progress when teachers are trying to address the problem. Additionally, the findings indicate that parents may hold different views to teachers about their role in school bullying situations. This would suggest that parents looking at the situation from the teacher's perspective, and vice versa, could help to build better parent-teacher relationships when tackling school bullying.