Research on the predictors of 3 bully status groups (bullies, victims, and bully victims) for school-age children and adolescents was synthesized using meta-analytic procedures. The primary purpose was to determine the relative strength of individual and contextual predictors to identify targets for prevention and intervention. Age and how bullying was measured were also considered as moderators. From an original pool of 1,622 studies conducted since 1970 (when research on bullying increased significantly), 153 studies were identified that met criteria for inclusion. A number of common and unique predictors were found for the bully status groups. The implications of the meta-analytic findings for future research on bullying and victimization prevention and intervention are discussed.

/pdf/predictors-of-bullying-and-victimization-in-childhood-and-36ydrp54nx.pdf

Predictors of Bullying and Victimization in Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-analytic Investigation

Hardly a family in America has been untouched by mental illness. As many as one third of American adults will suffer a diagnosable mental disorder sometime in their life, and 20 percent have a mental disorder at any given time. Although research on the causes and treatment of mental disorders remains vitally important—and indeed major advances are leading to better lives for increasing numbers of people—much greater effort than ever before needs to be directed to prevention. The Senate Appropriations Committee of the U.S. Congress believed that a strategic approach to the prevention of mental disorders was warranted. The Congress mandated the National Institute of Mental Health to enter into an agreement with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to prepare an integrated report of current research with policy-oriented and detailed long-term recommendations for a prevention research agenda. The specific tasks of the IOM committee, as negotiated with NIMH and the co-funding agencies, were as follows: • Review the status of current research on the prevention of mental illness and problem behaviors and on the promotion of mental health throughout the life span. This should include an understanding of available research knowledge, research priorities, and research opportunities in the prevention research area. • Review the existing federal presence in the prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health, spanning the continuum from research to policy and services. • Provide recommendations on federal policies and programs of ABSTRACT xi Ab ou t th is P D F fil e: T hi s ne w d ig ita l r ep re se nt at io n of t he o rig in al w or k ha s be en r ec om po se d fro m X M L fil es c re at ed f ro m t he o rig in al p ap er b oo k, n ot f ro m t he or ig in al ty pe se tti ng fi le s. P ag e br ea ks a re tr ue to th e or ig in al ; l in e le ng th s, w or d br ea ks , h ea di ng s ty le s, a nd o th er t y pe se tti ng -s pe ci fic fo rm at tin g, h ow ev er , c an no t b e re ta in ed , a nd s om e ty po gr ap hi c er ro rs m ay h av e be en a cc id en t a lly in se rte d. P le as e us e th e pr in t v er si on o f t hi s pu bl ic at io n as th e au th or ita tiv e ve rs io n fo r a ttr ib ut io n.

Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research

Bullying Prevalence Across Contexts: A Meta-analysis Measuring Cyber and Traditional Bullying

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1048488.pdf

Psychological, Physical, and Academic Correlates of Cyberbullying and Traditional Bullying

After sketching how my own interest and research into bullying problems began, I address a number of potentially controversial issues related to the definition and measurement of such problems. The importance of maintaining the distinctions between bullying victimization and general victimization and between bullying perpetration and general aggression is strongly emphasized. There are particular problems with the common method of peer nominations for purposes of prevalence estimation, comparisons of such estimates and mean levels across groups and time, and measurement of change. Two large-scale projects with time series data show that several recent claims about cyber bullying made in the media and by some researchers are greatly exaggerated and lack scientific support. Recent meta-analyses of the long-term outcomes for former bullies and victims provide convincing evidence that being involved in such problems is not just a harmless and passing school problem but something that has serious adjustment and public health consequences that also entail great costs to society. Another section presents my view of why the theme of bullying took quite some time to reach the peer relations research community in the United States and the role of a dominant research tradition focusing on "likeability" in this account. In a final section, I summarize some reasons why it may be considered important and interesting to focus both research and intervention on bully/victim problems.

School Bullying: Development and Some Important Challenges

Bullying is not an isolated problem, occurring only in a particular country or social setting. 
Rather, it is a pervasive behavioral problem crossing national boundaries and penetrating virtually every social setting in which people have ongoing relationships with repeated interactions 
over time. Schools represent a social setting common to nearly every country throughout the 
world. As a result, researchers worldwide have devoted considerable attention to studying bullying in schools (Espelage & Swearer, 2004; Smith et al., 1999; Olweus, 1993; Rigby, 2002), as 
evident in the survey of bullying conducted by Smith and others (1999) involving 21 countries 
in America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Variability in the Prevalence of Bullying and Victimization: A Cross-National and Methodological Analysis

Recent advances in understanding the learning, maintenance, prevention, and treatment of problematic social behaviors in childhood and adolescence have emphasized the central role of the child's developing cognitions (Beck, 1999; Boxer & Dubow, 2002; Compton et al., 2004; Crick & Dodge, 1994; Durlak, Rubin, & Kahng, 2001; Eron, 1994; Guerra & Huesmann, 2004; Huesmann, 1998; Lochman & Lenhart, 1995). The developing individual is seen as an active participant in a learning process linking individual (e.g., irritability, impulsivity) and environmental (e.g., community violence, poverty) risk factors to social behavior through cognitive structures, such as beliefs, rules, and schemas, and skills, such as attention, attribution, and problem solving. This cognitive-ecological view posits that problem behaviors emerge through interactions between individual predisposition and contextual socialization and are maintained over time and across situations by cognitive "styles" that are shaped by direct and observational learning experiences. Cognitive styles are learned across multiple contexts and, in turn, influence responding across these contexts. The term "ecological" refers to the nested contexts of child development, providing a stage for social interactions, opportunities for social engagement, and a normative or regulatory structure that includes costs and benefits of distinct courses of action (Guerra & Huesmann).Consider a boy who grows up in an environment laced with harsh and hostile encounters with parents, teachers, and peers. Over time, it is likely that these negative experiences will influence, at least to some degree, his self-perception ("nobody likes me"), perceptions of others ("they have it in for me"), and beliefs about aggression ("it's OK to hit and be mean-everybody does it"). Under these conditions, it is also likely that he will develop characteristic biases in social information processing that are based on the presumption that others act with hostile intent, leading to increased perceptions of vulnerability and anger, and a greater likelihood of aggressive retaliation. For example, Dodge and col leagues (Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 1997; Dodge, Pettit, Bates, & Valente, 1995) have shown that children who experience harsh parental discipline or are physically abused during their early childhood years are more likely to attribute hostile intent to peers in ambiguous situations and behave more aggressively than their nonexposed peers.If cognitive patterns linked to emotional reactions, such as anger, and behaviors, such as aggression, are learned over time, then it is also the case that they can be "unlearned." In essence, this is a fundamental premise of cognitive-behavioral interventions; that is, modifying dysfunctional cognition will, in turn, lead to positive effects on emotional and behavioral adjustment. However, because the primary emphasis is on the individual's cognitive deficits and distortions and how these can be modified, less attention has focused on the contribution of the child's total developmental ecology to the emergence and maintenance of targeted cognitions (Boxer & Butkus, in press; Durlak et al., 2001).Both clinical and psycho-educational interventions typically are designed to change how children think in response to problematic social situations, with less attention focused on modifying contextual influences on these emerging cognitions. The assumption is that once children correct errors in thinking or reduce deficits in social information-processing skills, they will be better equipped to navigate their social and emotional worlds, resulting in corresponding gains in adjustment. Although cognitive-behavioral interventions also address situational factors that have established or are maintaining specific symptoms or behaviors (e.g., functional analysis; Haynes & O'Brien, 1990), they focus primarily on immediate situational contingencies rather than overarching developmental contexts. …

Tia E. Kim

Papers

Predictors of Bullying and Victimization in Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-analytic Investigation

Variability in the Prevalence of Bullying and Victimization: A Cross-National and Methodological Analysis

A Cognitive-Ecological Approach to Serving Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Application to Aggressive Behavior

Preventing Youth Problem Behaviors and Enhancing Physical Health by Promoting Core Competencies

The Role of Second Step Child Protection Unit Online Teacher Training in Explaining Teacher and Student Outcomes: Multilevel SEM Analysis