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Rona Atlas

Bio: Rona Atlas is an academic researcher from York University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Primary education & Educational psychology. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 4 publications receiving 1172 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors employed naturalistic observations to compare bullying and victimization in the playground and in the classroom, and found that there were more opportunities to observe aggression and receive and initiate aggression in the play area than the classroom.
Abstract: The present study employed naturalistic observations to compare bullying and victimization in the playground and in the classroom. The results indicated that there were more opportunities to observe aggression and receive and initiate aggression in the playground than in the classroom. The frequency of bullying was higher in the playground (4.5 episodes per hour) than in the classroom (2.4 episodes per hour). The nature of bullying reflected the constraints of the context (i.e. direct bullying was more prevalent in the playground and indirect bullying was more prevalent in the classroom). Being at the receiving end of aggression was more likely to occur in the playground as compared to the classroom. Nonaggressive children were more likely to bully in the playground, whereas aggressive children were more likely to bully in the classroom. There was no difference across context in the proportion of episodes of reinforcement with peers present or in the rate of peer and teacher intervention. The results high...

585 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the prevalence and nature of bullying was assessed on the basis of observations of children's interactions in the classroom, based on a systemic developmental model of bullying and victimization.
Abstract: The prevalence and nature of bullying was assessed on the basis of observations of children's interactions in the classroom. This study was based on a systemic-developmental model of bullying and victimization. Participants were drawn from 1 public school in metropolitan Toronto. Twenty-seven children (19 boys, 8 girls) identified by teachers as aggressive and nonaggressive were targeted for filming. The 27 children were identified from the total number of students (N = 190) in the 8 classrooms. There were 60 bullying episodes observed from 28 hr of video and remote audio recordings of classroom observations. Bullying occurred twice every hour in the classroom and was short in duration. The boys and girls bullied at the same rate. Peers were involved in some capacity (from actively participating to passively onlooking) in 85% of the bullying episodes. Results suggest that bullying unfolds in a peer context in the classroom and is related to the type of classroom activity and individual characteri...

556 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Oct 2004
TL;DR: Charach, Pepler, and Ziegler as mentioned in this paper described a school-based intervention program developed prior to the recent surge in interest in the problem of bullying in Canada, which emerged from a survey conducted by the Toronto Board of Education in collaboration with researchers from York University.
Abstract: Impetus for the intervention study, early stages of planning, and funding Over the past decade, Canadians have become increasingly aware of the extent and consequences of bullying problems. Recently, there have been several high-profile cases of Canadian children who have suffered from prolonged victimisation, with severe consequences of suicide, revenge attacks, or death at the hands of peers. These cases have highlighted the need for empirically based prevention and intervention programmes. We will describe a school-based intervention programme developed prior to the recent surge in interest in the problem of bullying in Canada. This anti-bullying initiative emerged from a survey conducted in the early 1990s by the Toronto Board of Education in collaboration with researchers from York University. The questionnaire used for the survey was modelled after the Olweus self-report questionnaire (Olweus, 1989), with some adaptations for the Canadian context. The survey indicated that bullying and victimisation were pervasive problems. During the past two months, 24% of the grade 3–8 students reported that they had bullied other students at least once or twice, and 15% more than once or twice. Half of the students (49%) indicated that they had been victims of bullying at least once, 20% more than once or twice, and 8% reported being victimised weekly or more often during the past two months (Charach, Pepler, and Ziegler, 1995).

56 citations

01 May 1997
TL;DR: O'Connell et al. as discussed by the authors found that the prevalence of bullying and victimization in elementary and middle school children is higher than that of the general population of the country as a whole.
Abstract: DOCUMENT RESUME O'Connell, Paul; Sedighdeilami, Farrokh; Craig, Wendy; Connolly, Jennifer; Atlas, Charach, Alice Prevalence of Bullying and Victimization Elementary and Middle School Children. 1997-05-00 12p. Reports Research (143) MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. Age Differences; Aggression; *Bullying; Elementary Education; *Elementary School Students; Foreign Countries; Incidence; *Middle School Students; Middle Schools; Peer Relationship; *Student Surveys Canada; Victimization PS 026 206 Pepler, Debra J.; Rona; Smith, Carla;

22 citations


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Reference EntryDOI
01 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a developmental perspective of peer interactions, relationships, and groups is presented covering the periods of infancy, toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, and methods and measures pertaining to the study of children's peer experiences are described.
Abstract: The chapter begins with a distinction made between the interactions children have with peers, the relationships they form with peers, and the groups and networks within which peer interactions and relationships occur. From this conceptual overview, a review of relevant theories is presented. Thereafter, a developmental perspective of peer interactions, relationships, and groups is presented covering the periods of infancy, toddlerhood, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Subsequently, methods and measures pertaining to the study of children's peer experiences are described. Next, we examine factors that may account for peer acceptance and rejection as well as qualitatively rich and poor friendships. Among the factors discussed are included temperament (biological factors), sex of child, parenting, parent-child relationships, and culture. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the extent to which individual differences in peer acceptance, rejection and friendship (prevalence and quality) predict adaptive and maladaptive developmental outcomes and a suggested agenda for future research. Keywords: friendship; peer interactions; peer relationships; peer rejection; social acceptance; social competence

2,664 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the literature on the group involvement in bullying and provided insight into the individuals' motives for participation in bullying, the persistence of bullying, and the adjustment of victims across different peer contexts.

1,331 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The meta-analysis showed that, overall, school-based anti-bullying programs are effective: on average, bullying decreased by 20–23% and victimization decreased by 17–20%, and the time is ripe to mount a new program of research on the effectiveness of anti- bullying programs based on these findings.
Abstract: This article presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs in schools. Studies were included if they evaluated the effects of an anti-bullying program by comparing an intervention group who received the program with a control group who did not. Four types of research design were included: a) randomized experiments, b) intervention-control comparisons with before-and-after measures of bullying, c) other intervention-control comparisons, and d) age-cohort designs. Both published and unpublished reports were included. All volumes of 35 journals from 1983 up to the end of May 2009 were hand-searched, as were 18 electronic databases. Reports in languages other than English were also included. A total of 622 reports concerned with bullying prevention were found, and 89 of these reports (describing 53 different program evaluations) were included in our review. Of the 53 different program evaluations, 44 provided data that permitted the calculation of an effect size for bullying or victimization. The meta-analysis of these 44 evaluations showed that, overall, school-based anti-bullying programs are effective: on average, bullying decreased by 20–23% and victimization decreased by 17–20%. Program elements and intervention components that were associated with a decrease in bullying and victimization were identified, based on feedback from researchers about the coding of 40 out of 44 programs. More intensive programs were more effective, as were programs including parent meetings, firm disciplinary methods, and improved playground supervision. Work with peers was associated with an increase in victimization. It is concluded that the time is ripe to mount a new program of research on the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs based on these findings.

1,301 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that indirect, relational, and social aggression are much more similar than they are different, and ways in which future research can be facilitated by integrating the three areas under an adaptive framework are suggested.
Abstract: Over the last decade, researchers have found that girls may be just as aggressive as boys when manipulative forms of aggression, such as gossiping and spreading rumors, are included. These forms of aggression are known by 3 different names: indirect aggression, relational aggression, and social aggression. This review examines their commonalities and differences, and concludes that they are essentially the same form of aggression. We show that analogous forms are not found in other species. We offer a functional account: indirect aggression is an alternative strategy to direct aggression, enacted when the costs of direct aggression are high, and whose aim is to socially exclude, or harm the social status of, a victim. In this light, we consider sex differences and developmental trends and the impact of this aggression on victims. We conclude that indirect, relational, and social aggression are much more similar than they are different, and we suggest ways in which future research can be facilitated by integrating the three areas under an adaptive framework.

1,006 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reviewed risk factors associated with bullying and peer victimization in school within the context of Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework, and discussed the efficacy of the current bullying prevention and intervention programs, followed by directions for future research.

921 citations