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Peer influence is an instrument of change, with outcomes that are not preordained: The same processes that make influence a source of harm also make it a valuable interpersonal resource. Yet the benefits of peer influence are insufficiently appreciated. Knowing when and how much to conform to the wishes of others is an important skill that children must acquire to adjust to and thrive in a social world dominated by peers. Peer influence can be an adaptive strategy whose benefits outweigh the costs that sometimes arise in its application. To overlook the adaptive consequences of peer influence is to miss the main point of conformity, which is to foster harmony between individuals and secure their interpersonal, physical, and mental well-being.

This study examined whether having vulnerable friends helps or hurts victimized and depressed (i.e., vulnerable) adolescents and whether this depends on classroom supportive norms. Students (n = 1461, 46.7% girls, 93.4% Han nationality) were surveyed four times from seventh and eighth grade (M[subscript age] = 13 years) in 2015 and 2016 in Central China. Longitudinal social network analyses indicated that having vulnerable friends can both hurt and help vulnerable adolescents. Depressed adolescents with depressed friends increased in victimization over time. Victimized adolescents with victimized friends increased in victimization but decreased in depressive symptoms. These processes were most likely in classrooms with high supportive norms. Having friends and a supportive classroom may hurt vulnerable adolescents' social position but help victims' emotional development.

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 39,793 children and adolescents aged five to 20 years (M[subscript age] = 12.58, SD = 2.34) who had participated in quasi-experimental or randomized controlled trials of school-based anti-bullying interventions (i.e., 10 studies testing nine interventions). Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that anti-bullying interventions significantly reduced self-reported victimization (d = - 0.14) and bullying perpetration (d = - 0.07). Anti-bullying interventions more strongly reduced bullying perpetration in younger participants (i.e., under age 12) and victimization for youth who were more heavily victimized before the intervention. We did not find evidence to show that the inclusion of specific intervention components was related to higher overall intervention effects, except for an iatrogenic effect of non-punitive disciplinary methods--which was strongest for girls. Exploratory analyses suggested that school assemblies and playground supervision may have harmful effects for some, increasing bullying perpetration in youth who already bullied frequently at baseline. In conclusion, school-based anti-bullying interventions are generally effective and work especially well for younger children and youth who are most heavily victimized. Further tailoring of interventions may be necessary to more effectively meet the needs and strengths of specific subgroups of children and adolescents.

This study investigates the extent to which defending victims of bullying depends on liking and disliking and its relation with the classroom bullying norm (descriptive and popularity) in a sample of 1,272 students (50.8% boys) in 48 fifth-grade classrooms. Social network analysis with bivariate exponential random graph modelings showed that children are more likely to defend victims whom they like, who like them, and who are liked by the same classmates than victims who they dislike, who dislike them, and with whom they share antipathies by and to the same classmates. In addition, the analysis showed that bullying norms had an inconclusive effect on the relation between defending and (dis)liking.

This article focuses on the link between social norms and behavioral development as presented in research on norms regarding bullying and aggression. The aim is to present a conceptual framework for how classroom norms may explain children's decisions to defend others or refrain from defending. Norms emerge from group consensus about what is appropriate in given social circumstances, and can also shape, constrain, and redirect behavior at the individual level. The study of norms has gained much attraction in peer relation research, and has turned attention to group-level processes, often defined at the classroom level, which create and sustain shared meanings that impact behavioral and social adjustment. Norm conformity, pluralistic ignorance, and power balance are presented as potential micro-level mechanisms for the link between classroom popularity (or rejection) norms and defending behavior. Directions for further research are discussed, including the need to assess and test the microfoundations directly, examine gender-specific versus common norms, focus on competing classroom norms, test developmental effects of norms, examine the impact of teachers on social norms, and pay attention to the influence of personal norms.

This three-armed randomized controlled trial examined how moral disengagement and social norms account for change in bullying behavior and their potential as targets of anti-bullying components within separate interventions among 1200 French-speaking Belgian elementary students (48% boys, 9-12 year-olds, 57 classes, nine schools) during 2018-2019 (no ethnicity data available). Mediation analysis revealed that students' moral disengagement successfully decreased ([beta] = -0.46), which, in turn, reduced both bullying ([beta] = 0.33) and outsider behaviors ([beta] = 0.20), and increased defending ([beta] = -0.10). Intervening on social norms decreased bullying ([beta] = -0.18), but not through the perceived injunctive class norm as intended. Guidelines to open the "black box" of anti-bullying programs and determine the cost-effectiveness ratio of their components are provided.

In peer relations research, interest is increasing in studying the neural underpinnings of peer experiences in order to understand how peer interactions relate to adjustment and well-being. This review provides an overview of 27 studies examining how positive and negative peer experiences with personally familiar peers relate to neural processes. The review illustrates the ways that researchers have creatively designed controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments employing real-life relationships. The review highlights evidence supporting the role of reward and affect sensitivity, as well as neural sensitivity to social exclusion in relation to peer experiences. Further, the review highlights research about how peer experiences modulate neural underpinnings of risk-taking and prosocial behavior. The review concludes with the challenges that studies aiming to combine peer and brain research face and provides avenues for future research.

This study tested to what extent the relation between bullying victimization and future symptoms of depression could be explained by victims being more hostile and less assertive than non‐involved individuals. Data came from waves 2–4 of the Dutch TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Participants' bullying experiences were assessed at age 13, interpersonal style at age 16, and depression symptoms at age 19. Mediation analyses were performed primarily on 274 self‐reported victims and 1498 non‐involved peers. Self‐reported victims had an increased risk for depression symptoms. About a third of that risk could be explained by victims' hostile style, which was also higher than those of non‐involved peers. Although victims also reported lower levels of assertiveness than non‐involved peers, this interpersonal style did not mediate the link between bullying victimization and depression. Our findings suggest that high hostility, but not low assertiveness, partly explains the increased depression risk of self‐reported victims. Therefore, interventions could focus on addressing hostility, to help reduce the likelihood that adolescents who have experienced bullying victimization will have more interpersonal conflicts and mental health problems in the future. Supplementary materials also include analyses for bullies and bully‐victims, and for peer‐reported measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how teachers' self-efficacy for intervening in social dynamics and teacher-student relationships directly impact students' self-esteem, and indirectly buffer the negative association between both bullying and victimization and students' self-esteem. Teachers play a key role in shaping the peer relations in the classroom, and they might also be able to lessen the negative impact of bullying and victimization on students' self-esteem. Multilevel regression analysis on a sample of 59 Dutch teachers and 1,490 of their 5th grade students indicated that student-reported bullying and victimization were negatively related to students' self-reported self-esteem. Better student-perceived student-teacher relationships were related to higher self-esteem for all students, with additional increases in self-esteem for victims but decreases in the self-esteem of bullies. Teacher-reported self-efficacy was only related to lower self-esteem in bullies. Implications of these results and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Although peer victimization in school mainly takes place between children in the same classroom or grade and bullying is generally seen as a group process, little is known about how stability and change in classroom composition affect peer victimization. Hence, this study addressed the following questions: (a) Are newcomers in the classroom more likely to become victims? (b) Does a stable classroom, where children generally have the same classmates over time, lead to less change in bully nominations? To address these questions, this article examined 3 waves of bully nominations in a sample of 3,254 children (50% boys; age 8-12) in 31 elementary schools, displaying three types of schools: stable or unstable administrative or pedagogical multigrade. Both research questions were answered by longitudinal social network analyses of the school-wide networks. The meta-analyzed results of these analyses with small effect sizes showed that (a) although stable classrooms do not necessarily show less change in bully nominations than in unstable classrooms, victim-bully ties are more likely to develop among students in the same grade or same classroom and (b) newcomers were more likely to become victims, more so in unstable schools than in stable schools.

This study examined the association of friendships and popularity with adolescents' first-time involvement in a romantic relationship (referred to as romantic relationship debut). The aim of this article was twofold: first, to disentangle the unique effects of friendships and perceived popularity; second, to separate same- and cross-gender peer nominations. Specifically, it was tested whether same- and cross-gender friendships or same- and cross-gender popularity were more likely to increase the likelihood of romantic relationship debut. Using longitudinal data of 590 Dutch adolescents age 12 to 18 (57 % girls) from TRAILS (Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey), results are consistent with the hypothesis that cross-gender friendships and cross-gender popularity increase the chances of a romantic relationship debut. Findings indicate that peer evaluations by cross-gender peers of both friendships and popularity account for adolescents' romantic relationship debut.

This study investigates the dynamic interplay between bullying relationships and friendships in a sample of 481 students in 19 elementary school classrooms (age 8-12 years; 50% boys). Based on a relational framework, it is to be expected that friendships would be formed when two children bullied the same person and that children would start to bully the victims of their friends. Similarly, it is to be expected that friendships would be formed when two children were victimized by the same bully and that children would become victimized by the bullies of their friends. Longitudinal bivariate social network analysis supported the first two hypotheses but not the latter two. This study provides evidence for group processes in bullying networks in childhood.

Sexual harassment in the street is a form of microaggression that takes many different forms, including whistling, hissing, yelling, insulting, asking for sex, chasing, or cornering. Sexual street harassment is a social problem. A material risk of using the public realm is that some may abuse it (e.g., groping a stranger in a crowded room). A moral risk is that some people may have a mistaken sense that they have a right to make comments about people who are conspicuous in public spaces. This article examines the consequences of sexual street harassment for college students (n = 280; 84.4% female; M age = 23). In this selective sample, female students were more likely to experience street harassment than male students. Victimization of street harassment was associated with lower psychological well-being, lower perceptions of safety, and more precautions to avoid harassment. Sexual street harassment may reduce the accessibility of public spaces for victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Peers constitute an important developmental context for adolescent academic behaviour providing support and resources to either promote or discourage attitudes and behaviours that contribute to school success. When looking for academic help, students may prefer specific partners based on their social goals regarding academic performance. Aims: Based on the social goals for wanting to achieve academically (e.g., studying to be with friends, increasing/maintaining their own social status), we examine the extent to which adolescents' selection of preferred academic partners (with whom they would like to study) is driven by peers' academic performance, prosocial behaviour and friendships. Moreover, as high‐achieving students play an important role in academic settings, whether they are more likely to prefer to study with similar high‐achieving peers and friends was examined. Sample: A total of 537 seventh‐grade students from 13 classes over three waves. Methods: Longitudinal social network analyses (RSiena). Results: Adolescents were more likely to select high achievers, friends and prosocial peers as preferred academic partners. Furthermore, high achievers were more likely to choose other high achievers and friends as preferred academic partners. Conclusions: Adolescents are likely to prefer as study partners someone they can learn from and who is more approachable, cooperative and friendly. Regarding high achievers, they would choose not only academic partners with similar academic interests and motivations to help them boost their academic achievement but also classmates with whom they like to spend time and share personal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]