Lower Levels of Classroom Aggression Predict Stronger Relations Between Peer Victimization and Reactive Versus Proactive Aggression.

We examined the concurrent relations of children's reactive and proactive aggression with their experience of peer victimization. Extending previous research, we assessed these relations at both the child and classroom levels. We predicted that reactive aggression would relate positively to peer victimization, proactive aggression would relate negatively to peer victimization, and that these relations would vary with classroom levels of aggression. Participants included 1,291 fourth- and fifth-grade children (681 girls; M age = 10.14 years) and their 72 teachers from 9 schools in one public school district in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Children completed self-report measures of peer victimization and teachers completed measures of aggression for each child in their classrooms. Via two-level regression (level 1 = child; level 2 = classroom), reactive aggression related positively to peer victimization and proactive aggression related negatively to peer victimization. The positive relation between reactive aggression and peer victimization was only significant in classrooms with low levels of reactive aggression. The negative relation between proactive aggression and peer victimization was only significant in classrooms with low levels of proactive aggression. Our hypotheses were supported and offered further evidence for differential relations of reactive and proactive aggression with peer victimization at the child level, while demonstrating the important role of classroom norms for aggression in moderating these relations.

Effects of a Growth Mindset of Personality on Emerging Adults' Defender Self-Efficacy, Moral Disengagement, and Perceived Peer Defending.

This study investigated the effects of a brief educational exercise aimed to promote a growth mindset of personality (the belief that personality traits are malleable) on outcomes linked to peer defending. Undergraduates (N = 60) were randomly assigned to complete a learning task designed to foster a growth mindset of personality or to a matching control task. They then read a vignette of a college student victimized by peers and completed paper-and-pencil measures of defender self-efficacy, moral disengagement, and perceived defender behavior, followed by a brief manipulation check. The experimental manipulation was successful, and participants who completed the growth mindset of personality intervention reported higher defender self-efficacy, lower moral disengagement, and higher perceived defending behavior. There was also a significant indirect effect of the experimental manipulation on perceived defending via self-efficacy, suggesting that a growth mindset of personality may influence peer defending through gains in defender self-efficacy. Implications are discussed for bullying prevention, with emphasis on programming for emerging adults at college.

Preadolescents' Daily Peer Victimization and Perceived Social Competence: Moderating Effects of Classroom Aggression.

Few studies have assessed children's daily peer experiences, and even fewer have considered their daily self-perceptions. This daily diary study examined relations between preadolescents' daily reports of peer victimization and perceived social competence, along with moderating effects of classroom aggression. A racially diverse sample of 182 children in 5th grade (105 boys; M age = 10.64 years; 35% White, 31% Black, 17% Hispanic, 17% other or not reported) completed daily measures of peer victimization and perceived social competence, with most children completing measures on 8 school days. Teachers completed measures of aggression for each participating pupil. Four types of peer victimization (verbal victimization, social manipulation, social rebuff, and property attacks) predicted decreased daily perceived social competence. Daily social rebuff predicted decreased daily perceived social competence beyond the effects of the other types of victimization. Classroom aggression moderated the relation of verbal victimization with perceived social competence, such that this relation was significant in classrooms with lower aggression and nonsignificant in classrooms with higher aggression. Results indicate that preadolescents' daily self-perceptions fluctuate with daily victimization by peers, particularly with social rebuff. Findings also suggest that the impact of verbal victimization on children's self-views could be exacerbated in classrooms that better manage peer-to-peer aggression. Accordingly, targeted interventions appear critical for children who continue to experience peer victimization in schools with highly effective aggression prevention programs.

College students' daily coping, mood, and quality of life: Benefits of problem-focused engagement.

In this short communication, we investigated the relations of daily coping, mood, and quality of life in college students (n = 74) over seven consecutive days (n = 510). Specifically, we tested whether four types of daily coping (problem-focused engagement, problem-focused disengagement, emotion-focused engagement, and emotion-focused disengagement) were associated with three aspects of daily functioning (negative mood, positive mood, and quality of life). In a single multilevel multivariate regression model, we examined the day-to-day relations of the four coping strategies with mood and quality of life, while controlling for perceived stress. Results largely supported our hypotheses, such that problem-focused engagement was linked to lower negative mood and higher positive mood and quality of daily life, whereas the three other types of coping were negatively related or unrelated to daily functioning. These findings provide support for the benefits of problem-focused engagement in coping with everyday stressors of life as a college student, and implications for psychotherapy and counselling are discussed.

Preadolescents' Internal Attributions for Negative Peer Experiences: Links to Child and Classroom Peer Victimization and Friendship.

In addition to children's own peer relations, contextual norms for peer relations in classrooms and schools can influence how they perceive their peer interactions, and in some cases, might do so in opposite ways. The current study examined the relations of preadolescents' internal attributions for negative peer experiences with their own peer victimization and reciprocal friendship, as well as their classrooms' norms for peer victimization and reciprocal friendship. A racially diverse sample of 532 boys and girls from 37 fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms completed self-report measures of two internal attributions (characterological and behavioral) and peer nominations for peer victimization and reciprocal friendship. Multilevel multivariate regression was used to test a series of two-level models. Child peer victimization was positively associated with characterological attributions, and classroom peer victimization was negatively related to these attributions. Child reciprocal friendship was negatively associated with characterological and behavioral attributions, and classroom reciprocal friendship was positively related to characterological attributions. Results reveal distinct relations of children's own peer victimization and reciprocal friendship with their internal peer attributions. The findings also highlight the contextualized nature of children's internal peer attributions and provide additional support for the emerging notion of inverse or paradoxical effects of class/school-level variables on children's social cognition. Implications are briefly discussed for both school-based intervention and psychotherapy.

The simultaneous assessment of and relations between children's sympathetic and parasympathetic psychophysiology and their reactive and proactive aggression.

The goal of the current study was to examine the link between children's psychophysiology and aggression when both constructs were assessed simultaneously in scenarios designed to provide the opportunity to aggress for either a reactive reason or a proactive reason. Both sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity (skin conductance) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia or RSA), as well as their interaction, were included as physiological measures. Participants were 35 5th-grade children who were placed in two virtual-peer scenarios; one scenario provided the opportunity to aggress in response to peer provocation (i.e., reactive aggression) and the other scenario provided the opportunity to aggress for instrumental gain (i.e., proactive aggression). Both skin conductance and RSA were assessed at the time that children were given the opportunity to aggress; this simultaneous assessment of psychophysiology and aggression allowed for an examination of in-the-moment relations between the two constructs. For the reactive scenario, RSA moderated the in-the-moment relation between skin conductance and aggression such that the association was positive at low RSA but negative at high RSA. For the proactive scenario, skin conductance negatively predicted aggression in-the-moment, and RSA positively predicted aggression in-the-moment, but their interaction was not a significant predictor of aggression. Theoretical implications for reactive and proactive aggression and underlying physiological processes are discussed.

Nonconscious priming enhances the therapy relationship: An experimental analog study.

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether nonconscious priming could enhance client perceptions of the therapist in an experimental analog study. METHOD: Sixty undergraduate participants each played the part of client in a brief scripted role-play of a therapy intake session. Sessions lasted about 3 min. The first author played the role of therapist. Participants were randomly assigned to view a line drawing depicting two individuals pointing either in the same direction (empathy prime) or opposite directions (non-empathy prime). The drawing appeared as a watermark on initial screening forms. The experimenter was blind to group assignment and participants received a cover story designed to mask the purpose of the primes. RESULTS: Participants in the empathy priming condition gave the therapist higher ratings of empathy and congruence, spoke to him longer, and rated their likelihood of future progress higher compared to participants in the non-empathy group. None of the participants expressed awareness of the priming manipulation during a funneled debriefing. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that client ratings of the therapy relationship can be experimentally manipulated without awareness and open the door to experimental studies of the association between relationship factors and treatment outcome.

Teacher factors contributing to dosage of the KiVa anti-bullying program.

The KiVa Anti-Bullying Program (KiVa) seeks to meet the growing need for anti-bullying programming through a school-based, teacher-led intervention for elementary school children. The goals of this study were to examine how intervention dosage impacts outcomes of KiVa and how teacher factors influence dosage. Participants included 74 teachers and 1409 4th- and 5th-grade students in nine elementary schools. Teachers and students completed data collection at the beginning and end of the school year, including measures of bullying and victimization, correlates of victimization (depression, anxiety, peer rejection, withdrawal, and school avoidance), intervention cognitions/emotions (anti-bullying attitudes, and empathy toward victims), bystander behaviors, and teacher factors thought to relate to dosage (self-efficacy for teaching, professional burnout, perceived principal support, expected effectiveness of KiVa, perceived feasibility of KiVa). The dosage of KiVa delivered to classrooms was measured throughout the school year. Results highlight dosage as an important predictor of change in bullying, victimization, correlates of victimization, bystander behavior, and intervention cognitions/emotions. Of the teacher factors, professional burnout uniquely predicted intervention dosage. A comprehensive structural equation model linking professional burnout to dosage and then to child-level outcomes demonstrated good fit. Implications for intervention design and implementation are discussed.

Relations Between Actual Group Norms, Perceived Peer Behavior, and Bystander Children's Intervention to Bullying.

The goals of the study were (a) to predict children's intervention in bullying situations from class-level norms for intervention, as well as child-level perceptions of the number of peers who would intervene, and (b) to determine whether these predictions held when accounting for children's levels of empathy, prosocial behavior, and callous-unemotional traits. Participants were 751 racially and ethnically diverse fourth- and fifth-grade students (53.8% female) in 43 classes. Participants completed peer nominations about which classmates they perceived would intervene during bullying situations. Empathy and callous-unemotional traits were assessed via self report, whereas prosocial behavior was measured through peer report. Using multilevel modeling, each child's intervention in bullying was positively predicted from class-level norms for intervention (class means for the percentage of children who nominated each child as intervening) but negatively predicted from child-level perceptions of the number of peers who would intervene, after accounting for the 3 child traits. Class-level findings support past research on group norms which suggest that children are more likely to display a behavior if their peers display the same behavior. Child-level findings support the presence of the "bystander effect" in children's bullying episodes, in which children are less likely to intervene if they believe that more peers will do so. Thus, although children were more likely to intervene in classrooms with cultures that made intervention more normative, within the context of each class's culture, children were more likely to intervene if they perceived that fewer peers would do so.

Fifth-grade children's daily experiences of peer victimization and negative emotions: moderating effects of sex and peer rejection.

This study examined the relations of fifth-grade children's (181 boys and girls) daily experiences of peer victimization with their daily negative emotions. Children completed daily reports of peer victimization and negative emotions (sadness, anger, embarrassment, and nervousness) on up to eight school days. The daily peer victimization checklist was best represented by five factors: physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, property attacks, and social rebuff. All five types were associated with increased negative daily emotions, and several types were independently linked to increased daily negative emotions, particularly physical victimization. Girls demonstrated greater emotional reactivity in sadness to social manipulation than did boys, and higher levels of peer rejection were linked to greater emotional reactivity to multiple types of victimization. Sex and peer rejection also interacted, such that greater rejection was a stronger indicator of emotional reactivity to victimization in boys than in girls.

Reactive and proactive aggression in childhood and adolescence: precursors, outcomes, processes, experiences, and measurement.

This paper reviews and critiques the growing literature on the distinction between reactive and proactive aggression in children and adolescents. Empirical findings suggest that the subtypes of aggression are (a) preceded by different familial precursors, (b) associated with different behavioral outcomes, (c) driven by different social-cognitive and emotional processes, and (d) related to different social experiences. Because measurement difficulties have been a prominent concern in the study of reactive and proactive aggression, a discussion of various assessment approaches is included. Suggestions are made for future research directions, including a greater use of observational and laboratory-based methods, more longitudinal designs, and a greater focus on the careful assessment of the subtypes of aggression.

Reactive and proactive aggression: stability of constructs and relations to correlates.

The authors examined short-term temporal stability of reactive and proactive aggression, as well as short-term consistency of differential relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to 4 correlates. The authors used parent, teacher, peer, and self-report measures twice across 1 year to assess reactive aggression, proactive aggression, hyperactivity, social skills, anger expression, and depressive symptoms of 2nd-grade boys and girls (N = 57). Both subtypes of aggression remained stable across the year, even when the other subtype of aggression was explained at each assessment. Reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was consistently positively related to hyperactivity, poor social skills, and anger expression at each assessment.