Search

Previous work has shown that during adolescence, classrooms vary greatly in the extent to which aggression is rewarded with popularity (the 'popularity norm'). Aggressive popularity norms may promote the proliferation of aggression and negatively affect the classroom climate. It is, however, unknown how these norms emerge in the first place. This longitudinal study therefore investigated whether aggressive popularity norms can be predicted by the classroom composition of students. We examined whether the prevalence of six student types - socially and non-socially dominant prosocial, aggressive, and bi-strategic adolescents (adolescents who are both highly prosocial and aggressive) - contributed to the norm by establishing a popularity hierarchy: strong classroom asymmetries in popularity. We collected peer-nominated data at three secondary schools in the Netherlands (SNARE-study; Nstudents = 2843; Nclassrooms = 120; 51.4% girls; Mage = 13.2). Classroom-level regression analyses suggest that the classroom percentage of socially dominant aggressive and bi-strategic students predicted higher aggressive popularity norms, both directly and by enhancing the classrooms' popularity hierarchy. Instead, the presence of non-socially dominant aggressive students and socially dominant prosocial students contributed to lower aggressive popularity norms. Socially dominant prosocial students also buffered against the role of socially dominant aggressive adolescents in the aggressive popularity norm (moderation), but not against bi-strategic adolescents' role. Our findings indicate that interventions aimed at reducing aggressive popularity norms should first and foremost take the composition of classrooms at the start of the school year into account; and should not only encourage prosocial behavior, but also actively discourage aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined to what extent bullying behavior of popular adolescents is responsible for whether bullying is more or less likely to be accepted or rejected by peers (popularity-norm effect) rather than the behavior of all peers (class norm). Specifically, the mean level of bullying by the whole class (class norm) was split into behavior of popular adolescents (popularity-norm) and behavior of non-popular adolescents (non-popularity-norm), and examined in its interaction with individual bullying on peer acceptance and peer rejection. The data stem from a peer-nominations subsample of TRAILS, a large population-based sample of adolescent boys and girls (N = 3,312). The findings of multilevel regression analyses demonstrated that the negative impact of individual bullying on peer acceptance and the positive impact on peer rejection were particularly weakened by bullying by popular adolescents. These results place the class-norm effects found in previous person-group dissimilarity studies in a different light, suggesting that particularly bullying by popular adolescents is related to the social status attached to bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This three-wave longitudinal study was set out to examine the interplay between individual characteristics (social standing in the classroom) and descriptive and injunctive classroom norms (behavior and attitudes, respectively) in explaining subsequent bullying behavior, defined as initiating, assisting, or reinforcing bullying. The target sample contained fourth- to sixth-grade students ( n = 2,051) who attended the control schools in the Finnish evaluation of the KiVa antibullying program. Random slope multilevel analyses revealed that, over time, higher popularity or rejection, or lower acceptance were associated with increases in bullying behaviors, especially in classrooms with a high descriptive bullying norm. In contrast, the injunctive norm did not moderate the associations between social standing and engagement in bullying, except for children high on popularity. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between teacher characteristics and peer victimization in elementary schools. We used data of 3,385 elementary school students ( M age = 9.8) and 139 of their teachers ( M age = 43.9) and employed Poisson regression analyses to explain the classroom victimization rate. Results showed a higher victimization rate in the classrooms of teachers who attributed bullying to external factors-factors outside of their control. In addition, the results suggest that both teachers' perceived ability to handle bullying among students and teachers' own bullying history were positively associated with the classroom victimization rate. We also took into account classroom composition characteristics and found lower victimization rates in multi-grade classrooms and in classrooms with older students. The results support the notion of an association between teacher characteristics and peer victimization. Findings are discussed with regards to current literature and suggestions for future research are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive function and intelligence are negatively associated with aggression, yet the role of executive function has rarely been examined in the context of school bullying. We studied whether different domains of executive function and non-verbal intelligence are associated with bullying involvement in early elementary school. The association was examined in a population-based sample of 1,377 children. At age 4 years we assessed problems in inhibition, shifting, emotional control, working memory and planning/organization, using a validated parental questionnaire (the BRIEF-P). Additionally, we determined child non-verbal IQ at age 6 years. Bullying involvement as a bully, victim or a bully-victim in grades 1-2 of elementary school (mean age 7.7 years) was measured using a peer-nomination procedure. Individual bullying scores were based on the ratings by multiple peers (on average 20 classmates). Analyses were adjusted for various child and maternal socio-demographic and psychosocial covariates. Child score for inhibition problems was associated with the risk of being a bully ( OR per SD = 1.35, 95%CI: 1.09-1.66), victim ( OR per SD = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.00-1.45) and a bully-victim ( OR per SD = 1.55, 95%CI: 1.10-2.17). Children with higher non-verbal IQ were less likely to be victims ( OR = 0.99, 95%CI: 0.98-1.00) and bully-victims ( OR = 95%CI: 0.93-0.98, respectively). In conclusion, our study showed that peer interactions may be to some extent influenced by children's executive function and non-verbal intelligence. Future studies should examine whether training executive function skills can reduce bullying involvement and improve the quality of peer relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]