Relationship between Socio-Emotional Competencies and the Overlap of Bullying and Cyberbullying Behaviors in Primary School Students

Cybervictimization and emotional symptoms in adolescents: mediating role of psychological flexibility versus inflexibility

Background

Cyberbullying significantly affects adolescents, increasing the risk of negative emotional symptoms. This study explores how psychological flexibility and inflexibility may mediate this relationship, focusing on adolescent mental health in the context of cyberbullying.

Methods

A sample of 2,171 secondary school students, aged 11-18 years, was used to assess cyberbullying, emotional symptoms, and levels of psychological flexibility and inflexibility.

Results

Cybervictimization showed a direct relationship with emotional symptoms and psychological inflexibility. Psychological flexibility was negatively associated with cybervictimization and positively associated with mental health, acting as a protective mediator against the association of cyberbullying.

Conclusion

Psychological flexibility emerges as a key factor in reducing the negative association of cybervictimization in adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of developing strategies to improve psychological flexibility in young people as a means to strengthen their resilience in the face of cyberbullying and its emotional consequences.

Analysis of Influencing Factors and Construction of Nomogram of School Bullying Suffered by Middle School Students in Beijing in 2022

Purpose

School bullying has become increasingly serious among children, causing serious damage to their physical and mental health. Previous studies lacked data on bullying of middle school students in Beijing and rarely visualized the risks of bullying. This study investigated the situation and related risk factors of school bullying of middle school students in Beijing in 2022 and established a Nomogram prediction model to visualize the risk of school bullying for its prevention.

Methods

This study is a cross-sectional survey conducted from September 2022 to November 2022 to investigate the bullying situation and related risk factors of the 17729 middle school students in 16 districts of Beijing. Logistic regression is used to analyze the influencing factors of bullying, and then a Nomogram prediction model is established to quantitatively analyze the risk of bullying.

Results

In 2022, 2.69% of middle school students in Beijing reported being bullied. Multivariate analysis results showed that in the past 30 days, being beaten by parents, abnormal families, poor diet, depression, and internet addiction were risk factors for school bullying. Being female, non-residents, moderate-to-high-intensity exercise 3 to 4 days per week, and 2 to 3 physical education classes per week were protective factors against bullying.

Conclusion

Parents, schools, and society should form a joint force, pay attention to parent-child relationships and mental health, encourage students to go outside, strengthen physical exercise, and prevent the occurrence of school bullying.

The role of social-emotional competencies in interpersonal relationships: a structural equation modeling approach

Social-emotional competencies, a crucial non-academic factor for K-12 students to be competent 21st century citizens, are receiving increasing research attention. Based on the 2,801 self-reports of grades 4-8 students from four schools in China, this study scrutinized the associations between adolescents' five core competencies and their interpersonal relationships. Results indicated that five competencies acted as mediators between parent-child relationships and students' relationships with teachers and peers. In addition to the girls' advantage in five competencies, the results also demonstrated the gender and grade differences in the association. Boys had more indirect links and girls had both direct and indirect associations. There were grade differences in the mediating role of social awareness. The study's findings may advance our understanding of the parental influence on Chinese students' social-emotional competencies and provide a more nuanced picture of the conditions and interplay that foster or hinder students' proficiency in these competencies in schools and families.

The relationship between bullying victimization and problematic behaviors: A focus on the intrapersonal emotional competence and interpersonal social competence

BACKGROUND

Evidence consistently demonstrated that bullying victimization was associated with problematic behaviors among adolescents. However, scant attention has been given to simultaneous comparisons of the impacts of two distinct forms of victimization, traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization. In addition, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between bullying victimization and problem behavior remain inadequately explored.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine the correlation between bullying victimization and problematic behaviors, as well as the mediating roles of intrapersonal emotional competence and interpersonal social competence.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

A sample of 26,450 adolescents with a mean age of 15.44 (SD = 0.56) across nine countries was derived from the Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES).

METHODS

Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling, comprising three key components: the measurement model, the structural model, and the bootstrapping analysis for mediating effects.

RESULTS

Both traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization exhibited positive correlations with problematic behaviors, with cyberbullying victimization demonstrating a stronger effect. The mediating effects of intrapersonal emotional competence and interpersonal social competence were observed in the correlation between bullying victimization and problematic behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

This study not only contributed to our comprehension of the underlying mechanisms connecting bullying victimization and adolescent problematic behaviors, but also holds significance for policy development and practice.

Bullying Victimization and Suicidal Thoughts: Emotional Distress and Neighborhood Conditions

The study aims to examine (1) the association between bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts and (2) neighborhood conditions as a moderated mediated model of the association between bullying victimization, emotional distress, and suicidal thoughts. The sample consists of 414 African American youths (ages 12-17) in Chicago's Southside neighborhoods. Variables included suicidal thoughts, bullying victimization, emotional distress, neighborhood conditions, age, sex, and government assistance. Analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multivariate regression analyses. The study found that bullying victimization was not directly associated with suicidal thoughts. However, bullying victimization was positively associated with emotional distress, which was related to suicidal thoughts. Moreover, emotional distress as a mediator of the association between bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts was observed when neighborhood conditions were a moderator. The findings suggest that bullying victimization and suicidal thoughts are major concerns for African American adolescents, and prevention and intervention need to be cost-effective.

Bullying in Middle School: Evidence for a Multidimensional Structure and Measurement Invariance across Gender

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the factorial structure of the bullying scale on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS 2019) for eighth graders and evaluate the instrument's invariance across gender so that tests of level between males and females can be conducted. Data came from the 2019 cohort of TIMSS in Saudi Arabia. The 14-item scale was evaluated using three competing models: (a) a unidimensional structure, (b) the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) online, non-online two-factor model, and (c) the Wang et al. (2012) 4-domain bullying taxonomy. Participants were 5567 eighth graders who participated in the 2019 TIMSS study. There were 2856 females and 2711 males. The mean age was 13.9 years. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Mplus 8.9. Results indicated that a 4-domain structure including verbal, physical, relational, and online bullying represented the most optimal factor structure of the 14-item bullying measure. Tests of exact measurement invariance for gender originally failed but were then satisfied using the newly recommended "alignment" methodology. Latent mean differences were salient and significant suggesting that levels of bullying across all domains were elevated in males compared to females, contrasting earlier views that different types of bullying are linked to males versus females. Results are discussed in relation to educational policy interventions.

Onset risk factors for youth involvement in cyberbullying and cybervictimization: A longitudinal study

Introduction

Cyberbullying and cybervictimization are spread worldwide, and due to COVID-19, an increasing number of children and adolescents have been impacted. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, research has investigated and highlighted the key risk factors for cyberbullying and cybervictimization, and numerous anti-cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs have been developed and assessed for their efficacy. Despite this, no studies have specifically focused on the individual, relational, and contextual risk factors associated with the onset of youth involvement in cyberbullying and cybervictimization.

Methods

To address this lacuna, 333 Italian students aged 10-16 years (M = 12.16, SD = 1.35) were involved in a year-long longitudinal study and filled in the anonymous online actuarial Tabby Improved Checklist two times with a 6-month interval. Onset risk factors for cyberbullying and cybervictimization have been separately analyzed by excluding all students involved in cyberbullying from the original sample or in the cybervictimization baseline (T1).

Results

The results showed that being male, being involved in school bullying, having low levels of awareness of online risk, and having high levels of affective empathy were all significant onset risk factors for cyberbullying. Similarly, being male, being involved in school bullying and victimization, having high levels of affective empathy, and moral disengagement were onset risk factors for cybervictimization.

Conclusion

Given the negative psychological and behavioral consequences of cyberbullying and cybervictimization, this article includes discussions on practical and policy implications for future research, stressing the need to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of primary prevention programs addressing and managing onset risk factors for cyberbullying and cybervictimization.

Assessing Cyberbullying in Adolescence: New Evidence for the Spanish Version of the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (ECIP-Q)

The prevention of cyberbullying at school requires assessing its prevalence by means of brief measurement instruments with adequate psychometric properties. The present study aims to study the psychometric properties of the European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (ECIP-Q) in a sample of 1777 Spanish adolescents (54.1% women, M = 15.71 years; SD = 1.26), selected by stratified random cluster sampling. The two-factor model (victimization and aggression) displayed appropriate goodness of-fit indices. Configural measurement invariance model across gender was found. The omega reliability coefficient for the victimization subscale was 0.82, and for the aggression subscale was 0.68. The ECIP-Q scores were negatively associated with self-esteem and prosocial behavior, and positively associated with depression symptoms and emotional and behavioral difficulties. Significant differences were found between victim and non-victim groups, and between aggressor and non-aggressor groups on the same variables. Victims and aggressors scored lower on self-esteem, and higher on depression symptoms and emotional and behavioral difficulties than those not involved in cyberbullying situations. These findings contribute to demonstrate the satisfactory psychometric quality of the ECIP-Q scores as an assessment tool for cyberbullying in Spanish adolescents.

Correlational study on cyberbullying and social abilities in intercultural teenagers

This article analyzes the relationship between cyberbullying profile by racist reasons and social abilities in a group of intercultural teenagers living in Spain (N = 1478). The study includes participants aged between 12 and 16 years old (M = 13.99; SD = 1.352). Of these, 738 were male (49.9%) and 740 were female (50.1%). A correlational study was carried out using online tools with suitable psychometrics parameters (content-construct validity and reliability). The first one was a scale that measured social abilities, and the second one evaluated racist or xenophobic cyberbullying, differentiating the victim and aggressor profiles. The results indicated five main findings: (1) generally, the participants analyzed present all their social abilities; (2) for the most part, these participants do not normally experience cyberbullying; (3) a positive correlation exists between the majority of social abilities analyzed and the cybervictim profile. It was also observed a negative correlation between the social ability associated with the ability of making requests and this profile; (4) there is a positive correlation among the six social abilities analyzed and the cyberaggressor profile; (5) the racist or xenophobic cyberbullying are driven not only by the absence of social abilities, but in some cases, they are also driven by socio-demographic variables (i.e., age and gender). Likewise, this work shows how the absence of some social abilities in some participants involve racist or xenophobic experiences as victims and as aggressors, which may be of interest for the analysis of teenagers' behavior in intercultural contexts, as well as according to age and gender. More transcultural research need to be carried out to know the global perspective of the link between social abilities and the different profiles of racist and xenophobic cyberbullying, framed in the context of social psychology and studies of mass communication.

Cyberbullying and empathy among elementary school students: Do special educational needs make a difference?

The present study investigates involvement in cyberbullying and empathy skills, as well as the relationship between the two among general education sixth grade elementary school students with and without special educational needs (SEN). Specifically, 120 students with SEN (Autistic Spectrum Disorder-ASD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-ADHD, learning disabilities) and 120 students without SEN from 29 randomly selected schools of the second biggest city in Greece completed a self-report questionnaire, which included a short version of the "Cyberbullying Questionnaire" (Smith et al., An investigation into cyber bullying, its forms, awareness and impact, and the relationship between age and gender in cyber bullying. A report to the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Unit for School and Family Studies, 2006) and the "Basic Empathy Scale"-BES (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006, J Adolesc, 29:589, 2006). The results showed that, regardless of gender, involvement in cyberbullying (as victims/bullies) concerned primarily students with SEN, mainly those with ASD and ADHD. Accordingly, students with SEN and mostly those with ASD expressed lower affective and cognitive empathy compared to the rest of the students. Finally, for all the participating students both affective and cognitive empathy negatively predicted engagement in cyberbullying (as victims/bullies). Implications for preventive actions in elementary education, and especially for children with SEN, are discussed in detail.

The Relationship between Personal Variables and Perceived Appropriateness of Coping Strategies against Cybervictimisation among Pre-Service Teachers

Cyberbullying behaviours begin at primary school, so the actions taken by pre-teachers will play a key role in achieving the goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. More specifically, active coping strategies are essential in reducing victimisation. The aim of this study was to identify the coping strategies considered effective by pre-service teachers and to analyse the perceived appropriateness of active and passive strategies in relation to personal variables. The participants were 1122 students on the Bachelor’s Degree in Education at the University of Castile-La Mancha in Spain. The study measured the perceived appropriateness of five active coping strategies and four passive coping strategies, moral disengagement, experiences of bullying and cyberbullying, emotions in response to bullying and gender stereotypes. The results show that more than 25% of pre-service teachers are not prepared to manage cyberbullying effectively. Prior experiences of victimisation, personal masculinity in men and moral emotions in women are related to active strategies, while moral disengagement, and pleasant emotions in women, are related to passive strategies. Universities must implement initiatives to ensure that pre-service teachers receive training on effective coping strategies and reflect on the personal factors influencing their decisions.