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Adolescent bullying victimization can have long-term mental health and well-being outcomes. This study focused on the potential mediating role of the perceived long-term negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization to understand its relations with mental health and well-being problems during emerging adulthood. A retrospective study consisting of closed and open-ended questions was conducted among 1010 Flemish and 650 Dutch emerging adults aged 18-26. Path analyses among early victims (N-Flemish = 644; N-Dutch = 217) demonstrated that the relations between bullying victimization intensity and current self-esteem, social interaction anxiety, and life satisfaction were all mediated by the perceived negative long-term impact of adolescent bullying victimization. Additionally, the open-ended questions provided a better understanding of the perceived negative and positive impact of adolescent bullying victimization. The present study offers insights into the importance of considering subjective perceptions of the overall impact of being bullied to understand long-term bullying victimization outcomes. Implications and limitations are discussed, including the need for longitudinal data-for instance, a three-wave panel study-to establish the temporal order of effects.

Background: Bias-based bullying is a serious phenomenon having a negative impact on the well-being of children with socially devaluated identities or attributes. Driven by social-cognitive factors of stigma, intergroup theories and strategies are needed to tackle this form of bullying. The aim of the GATE-BULL project was to develop and evaluate a serious game and classroom lesson plan to encourage bystander intervention in weight-, ethnicity-, and religion-based bullying situations.Methods: The intervention was a 4-week school-based intervention targeted at 9–13-year-olds tested using a quasi-experimental design. In total, 578 children from The Netherlands, Scotland and Greece were included in analyses. Measures on self-efficacy and intention were self-construed; measures on intergroup anxiety and attitudes, moral disengagement, and peer norms were adapted from other research. Hypotheses were tested using MRA.Findings: Results of The Netherlands show that children in the intervention group reported a more positive peer norm (p=.048, d=0.40); minority children reported higher confidence to defend other minority children (p=.010, d=0.65); and majority children reported to be less anxious towards Muslim children (p=.037, d=0.41). In Scotland, children reported higher intention to defend overweight children (p=.01, d=.25). In Greece, no effects were found.Discussion: The intervention was received well by teachers and children and had some important effects on determinants of bystander behavior. The intervention was less effective in Scotland and Greece, which could be attributed to only white schools being included in the trial. The intervention shows much potential in setting a more inclusive classroom norm. However, additional research is recommended.GATE-BULL: Using a GAmes approach to TEach children about prejudice-based BULLying

Contains fulltext : 194048.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Art therapy for people diagnosed with personality disorders (PD) cluster B/C seems valuable to explore dysfunctional patterns in managing emotions. Current art therapy interventions are based on practical beliefs or commonsense approaches, without a sound basis in research results. To increase the effectiveness of art therapy for this target group, a planned, systematic and theory-based approach is needed. The principles of Intervention Mapping were applied to guide the development, implementation, and planned evaluation of the art therapy intervention. Empirical findings, theoretical models, and clinical practice experience were combined to construct a programme tailored to the needs of the target group. A structured 10-session art therapy intervention programme for patients was developed, aimed at: experiencing a (more) stable and positive sense of self, being able to express and regulate emotions, understanding emotions, thoughts and behaviours, using improved social and problem solving skills. Implementation took place and evaluation of the intervention is being carried out. The systematically developed art therapy intervention seems to be promising for PD patients in learning to deal with their problems. The results of the evaluation study may contribute to the knowledge about the use of art therapy for PD problems. 11 p.

The negative effects and the continuation of cyberbullying seem to depend on the coping strategies the victims use. To assess their coping strategies, self-report questionnaires (SRQs) are used. However, these SRQs are often subject to several shortcomings: the (single and topological) categorizations used in SRQs do not always adequately differentiate among various coping responses, in addition the strategies of general SRQs fail to accurately measure coping with cyberbullying. This study is therefore aimed to develop a SRQ that specifically measures coping with cyberbullying (i.e., Cyberbullying Coping Questionnaire, CCQ) and to discover whether other, not single and topological, categorizations of coping strategies can be found. Based on previous SRQs used in the (cyber)bullying (i.e., traditional and cyberbullying) literature (i.e., 49 studies were found with three different SRQs measuring coping with traditional bullying, cyberbullying or (cyber)bullying) items and categorizations were selected, compared and merged into a new questionnaire. In compliance with recommendations from the classical test-theory, a principal component analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis were done, and a final model was constructed. Seventeen items loaded onto four different coping categorizations: mental-, passive-, social-, and confrontational-coping. The CCQ appeared to have good internal consistency, acceptable test-retest reliability, good discriminant validity and the development of the CCQ fulfilled many of the recommendations from classical test-theory. The CCQ omits working in single and topological categorizations and measures cognitive, behavioral, approach and avoidance strategies.

Because of the negative effects of cyberbullying, and because of its unique characteristics, interventions to stop cyberbullying are needed. For this purpose, more insightful information is needed about cyberbullying victims’ (i.e., the target group) experiences, perceptions, attitudes and motivations related to (coping with) cyberbullying. Five schools with 66 low-educated Dutch adolescents between 12 and 15 (53% female) participated in 10 focus group interviews. Results show that victims do not perceive all behaviors as cyberbullying and traditional bullying is generally perceived as worse than cyberbullying. Cyberbullies are perceived as sad, cowards and embarrassing themselves. Victims are perceived as easy targets, they wear strange clothes, act in a provocative manner and have a bad appearance. These perceptions often depend on context, the level of anonymity, being in a fight or not, the person sending the message and his/her behavior. Further, victims reacted to cyberbullying by acting nonchalant, by not actually saying anything and seeking help from others (i.e., parents are not often asked for help because they do not want to bother them, fear of restricted Internet privileges). It can be concluded that asking cyberbullying victims about their experiences in an open manner, and allowing them to discuss these experiences, likely results in new and insightful information compared to using self-reports. In this questioning the perception of adolescents is key to see what is perceived as cyberbullying.