Internet Use and Perceived Parental Involvement among Adolescents from Lower Socioeconomic Groups in Europe: An Exploration.

Internet usage is a salient developmental factor in adolescents' lives. Although relevant correlates of Internet use have been documented earlier, there is a lack of information on lower socioeconomic status groups. This is important, as these adolescents have increased risk of negative online experiences. The current survey aimed to explore Internet use and parental involvement amongst adolescents from areas of socio-economic disadvantage in 30 urban schools across five European countries. A total of 2594 students participated, of whom 90% were 14-16 years. Virtually all adolescents of socioeconomic disadvantage had Internet access, with 88.5% reporting spending more than two hours per day online, often on apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. Almost one-third of adolescents did not talk with their parents about their Internet use and almost two-thirds indicated that their parents were only a little or not interested in their Internet use. A consistent finding across countries was that girls more often talked with their parents about their Internet use and more often reported that their parents were interested in their Internet use than boys. The results suggest that parents have an important task in explicitly showing interest in their adolescents' Internet use, with special attention needed for boys.

Motivational dynamics of German Salafist jihadists: A multi-methodical in-depth study of three paradigmatic cases.

Individuals belonging to terrorist organizations accept and often use violence as an instrument of their strategies to achieve their goals. The present study focuses on the motivational dynamics of three contrastively selected paradigmatic cases of extremists that grew up in Germany, joined and supported terrorist organizations abroad, and later disengaged and distanced themselves from the jihadist ideology. An innovative multi-methodical approach was applied to the interviews that combines a biographical reconstruction of the lived experiences with a psychoanalytically informed interpretation of the narratives. First, the biographical trajectories were analyzed on the manifest level: How have the former terrorists experienced their own pathways? What were relevant factors for their engagement in and disengagement from terrorism? Second, to gain a deeper understanding of the unconscious motivational dynamics for involvement in terrorism, key sequences of the narrative interviews were interpreted scenically in a psychoanalytical interpretation group: How did the interviewees express their lived experiences (and why in this particular way)? What latent meanings can be extrapolated that provide deep insights into the motivational backgrounds of their decisions? Based on the results of the triangulation process, characterizing structural hypotheses about case dynamics including protective and risk factors are presented and implications for prevention and intervention approaches are given.

Co-occurrence, stability and manifestation of child and adolescent mental health problems: a latent transition analysis.

BACKGROUND: Complex constellations of socio-emotional and behavioural problems (i.e., mental health problems) in childhood and adolescence are common and heighten the risk for subsequent personality, anxiety and mood disorders in adulthood. Aims of this study included the examination of patterns of mental health problems (e.g., externalizing-internalizing co-occurrence) and their transitions to reported mental disorders by using a longitudinal person-centered approach (latent class and latent transition analysis). METHODS: The sample consisted of 1255 children and adolescents (51.7% female, mean age = 12.3 years, age range 8-26 years) from three time points of the comprehensive mental health and wellbeing BELLA study. Children and their parents completed the German SDQ (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, Goodman, 1997) and reported on diagnoses of ADHD, depression, and anxiety. RESULTS: Latent class analysis identified a normative class, an emotional problem class, and a multiple problem class. According to latent transition analysis, the majority of the sample (91.6%) did not change latent class membership over time; 14.7% of individuals showed a persistent pattern of mental health problems. Diagnoses of mental disorders were more likely to be reported by individuals in the emotional problem or multiple problem class. CONCLUSIONS: Results highlight the need for early prevention of mental health problems to avoid accumulation and manifestation in the transition to adolescence and young adulthood.

Stay Safe and Strong: Characteristics, Roles and Emotions of Student-Produced Comics Related to Cyberbullying.

The present study aimed at giving voice to students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds using a co-participatory approach. Participants were 59 adolescents (52.5% males) aged between 14 and 16 from five European countries who created ten comics to illustrate cyberbullying for a broader audience of peers. We analyzed texts and images according to four primary themes: cyberbullying episodes (types, platforms, co-occurrence with bullying), coping strategies, characters (roles, gender, and group membership), and emotions. The content analysis showed that online denigration on social media platforms was widely represented and that cyberbullying co-existed with bullying. Social strategies were frequently combined with passive and confrontational coping, up to suicide. All roles (cyberbully, cybervictim, bystander, reinforcer, defender) were portrayed among the 154 characters identified, even if victims and defenders appeared in the vignettes more often. Males, females, peers, and adults were represented in all roles. Among the 87 emotions detected, sadness was the most frequently expressed, followed by joy, surprise, anger, and fear. Emotions, mainly represented by drawings or drawings with text, were most often represented in association with cybervictims. The results are discussed in terms of their methodological and practical implications, as they emphasize the importance of valorizing young peoples' voices in research and interventions against cyberbullying.

Bullying Perpetration and Victimization: A Test of Traditional and Cyber-Behaviors as Latent Constructs.

The current investigation hypothesized and tested latent bully/victim traits for physical, verbal, or relational bullying/victimization, both cyber and traditional behaviors. Data were collected from 1,356 German students who attended Grades 5 to 10: 48.4% males, 49.3% females from eight different schools in Northern Germany. Based on two samples for cross-validation (Ntraining set = 525, Nvalidation set = 525), study findings provided strong evidence of adequate model fit, both for traditional and cyber behaviors. Consistent with the current state of knowledge, bullying and victimization latent traits highly associated, more so for cyber behaviors than traditional ones. Thus, both the theoretical plausibility as well as statistical evidence support the application of latent modeling to these behaviors. Further research is needed to replicate the applied measurement models proposed in this work and to reveal moderators or measurement invariance across diverse populations. Nevertheless, the current evidence substantiates the importance of the application of a latent modeling approach to overcome known psychometric challenges of reliability and validity in bullying research.

Preventive interventions for children in organized team sport tackling aggression: Results from the pilot evaluation of "Fairplayer.Sport".

Current reviews revealed that there is a lack of effective programs and valuable effectiveness studies related to prevention of aggressive behavior and fostering of social competence in early adolescents participating in organized team sports (e.g., ball sports, such as soccer). Using a randomized controlled design, the present pilot study presents first results regarding the effectiveness of the preventive intervention program "Fairplayer.Sport" that was implemented with preadolescent soccer players (N = 145 preadolescents; aged 9-14 years; mean = 12.2 years) in organized team sport (13 soccer teams). Results revealed a reduction of aggressive behavior in the intervention groups compared to waiting-control groups (small effect size). This effect remained stable 3 months after program implementation. Implications for planning and implementing preventive intervention programs are discussed.

Manifesto for new directions in developmental science.

Although developmental science has always been evolving, these times of fast-paced and profound social and scientific changes easily lead to disorienting fragmentation rather than coherent scientific advances. What directions should developmental science pursue to meaningfully address real-world problems that impact human development throughout the lifespan? What conceptual or policy shifts are needed to steer the field in these directions? The present manifesto is proposed by a group of scholars from various disciplines and perspectives within developmental science to spark conversations and action plans in response to these questions. After highlighting four critical content domains that merit concentrated and often urgent research efforts, two issues regarding "how" we do developmental science and "what for" are outlined. This manifesto concludes with five proposals, calling for integrative, inclusive, transdisciplinary, transparent, and actionable developmental science. Specific recommendations, prospects, pitfalls, and challenges to reach this goal are discussed.

Teacher and Peer Responses to Warning Behavior in 11 School Shooting Cases in Germany.

Warning behavior prior to an act of severe targeted school violence was often not recognized by peers and school staff. With regard to preventive efforts, we attempted to identify barriers to information exchange in German schools and understand mechanisms that influenced the recognition, evaluation, and reporting of warning behavior through a teacher or peer. Our analysis is based on inquiry files from 11 cases of German school shootings that were obtained during the 3-year research project "Incident and case analysis of highly expressive targeted violence (TARGET)." We conducted a qualitative retrospective case study to analyze witness reports from school staff and peers. Our results point to subjective explanations used by teachers and peers toward conspicuous behavior (e.g., situational framing and typical adolescent behavior), as well as reassuring factors that indicated harmlessness (e.g., no access to a weapon). Additionally, we found organizational barriers similar to those described in US-American case studies (e.g., organizational deviance).

The association between in-class cultural diversity with empathy and bullying in adolescence: A multilevel mediation analysis.

Little is known about the associations between cultural class composition, teacher support for diversity (TSD), cognitive and affective empathy, and bullying and victimisation. Research shows that empathy is negatively associated with bullying and victimisation; and support for diversity and classroom cultural diversity are positively linked to social skills. The present study examines whether cultural diversity and perceived TSD are protective factors against bullying and victimisation, either directly or mediated by empathy. Participants were 897 students from Grades 7 to 10 (Mage  = 13.45, SDage  = 1.07, 51.3% girls, 46.7% boys) in 36 classes. Multilevel mediation analyses were conducted. Age and gender were controlled for. More perceived TSD and affective empathy were associated with less bullying. Moreover, the effect of perceived TSD on bullying was partly indirect through affective empathy. Victimisation was not predicted by the study variables. The class level showed no effects. Bullying and victimisation are complex phenomena, which seem to be linked more to individual than to class characteristics. The result that higher perceived TSD was linked to empathy and bullying provides a promising starting point for measures of competence enhancement and bullying prevention.

Adaptation and implementation of the German social-emotional learning programme Papilio in Finland: A pilot study.

This study investigated the cross-national adaptation and implementation of Papilio, a German social-emotional learning programme, in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres. Papilio is a developmentally focused, scientifically based intervention programme focused on preventing behavioural problems and fostering social-emotional competence in children aged 3-7. The aim of this study was to investigate and evaluate the cross-national adaptation and cross-cultural adaptation and implementation of Papilio in the Finnish ECEC context. Results from qualitative interviews with one Finnish Papilio trainer, 11 early childhood education (ECE) teachers, two ECE special education teachers and two nursery nurses are supplemented with teachers' and nursery nurses' (N = 75) questionnaire data. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed that cultural adaptations were necessary on four levels: accommodation of materials, adaptation of the contents of the materials, structure and delivery. The materials and training contents were culturally adapted, whereas the delivery of the intervention was adapted according to Finnish ECEC practices. The structural adaptation included discarding timeout, due to opposition by some educators. The educators were committed to implementing the programme as instructed and resolving the practical difficulties they encountered. Their motivation to implement Papilio increased as they observed improvements in the children's social-emotional competence during intervention.

Do Cross-National and Ethnic Group Bullying Comparisons Represent Reality? Testing Instruments for Structural Equivalence and Structural Isomorphism.

Bullying in schools is a widespread phenomenon, witnessed worldwide, with negative consequences for victims and perpetrators. Although it is an international issue, there are several issues with cross-national and cross-cultural/ethnic research that can make comparisons between countries and cultures/ethnic groups difficult including language, cultural perception, and/or methodological issues. As statistical techniques rapidly develop, there may be more scope to be statistically creative in how we assess the utility of one tool across different groups such as cultures, nations, etc. At the very least, an attempt to do this should be paramount in studies investigating different groups (e.g., from different countries) at one time. This study investigated bullying and victimization rates in a large cross-ethnic and -country comparison between adolescents from four countries and five different ethnic groups including: Israel (Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinian Israelis), Palestine (the Gaza Strip), Germany, and Greece. A total of 3,186 school children aged 12-15 years completed self-report questionnaires of peer bullying/victimization. A stepwise data analytic approach was used to test comparability of the psychometric properties: (1) Structural equivalence contributes to the valid use of the instrument in cultural contexts other than the one for which the instrument has been developed. Structural equivalence is a necessary condition for the justification of indirect or direct comparisons between cultural groups. (2) Additionally, structural isomorphism is necessary to demonstrate that the same internal structure of the instrument applies to the cultural and individual levels. Findings support the internal structural equivalence of the questionnaire with the exception of the Palestinian sample from the Gaza Strip. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis on the cultural level structure revealed a one-factor structure with congruence measure below 0.85. Thus, no evidence was found for internal structural isomorphism suggesting that no direct comparisons of cultural samples was justified. These results are discussed in detail and the implications for the international research community and cross-national/-ethnic comparison studies in bullying are addressed.

Efficacy of Cyberbullying Prevention on Somatic Symptoms-Randomized Controlled Trial Applying a Reasoned Action Approach.

The theory of reasoned action (ToRA) has been proposed as a framework for cyberbullying prevention design, targeting attitudes and norms. In this study effects of a long (10 weekly sessions) and a short (one day, four sessions) cyberbullying prevention program based on the ToRA were compared with a control group over 9 months. Longitudinal data from 722 students (mean age = 13.36) on cyberbullying, somatic symptoms, attitudes, and norms were analyzed within a structural equation model. Participation in the long intervention group significantly reduced cyberbullying (d = -0.584) and somatic symptoms (d = -0.316). No between-group differences emerged for attitudes and norms. Developmental trajectories and associations were found to be as suggested by ToRA in both cross-sectional and change-score analyses.

Same but Different? Developmental Pathways to Demonstrative Targeted Attacks - Qualitative Case Analyses of Adolescent and Young Adult Perpetrators of Targeted School Attacks and Jihadi Terrorist Attacks in Germany.

Analysis of incidents over the past ten years in Germany reveals that the boundaries between targeted attacks in schools and terrorist attacks are starting to blur. Böckler, Leuschner, Roth, Zick, and Scheithauer (2018) recently presented a set of hypotheses about similarities between the developmental pathways of school attackers and lone actor terrorists. To date there is only a small body of empirical research comparing these two forms of targeted violence in depth. In order to fill this gap, this article presents findings from a qualitative analysis of prosecution files comparing the developmental pathways of German school attackers (N = 7; age range: 13 to 23) and Jihadi attackers (N = 7; age range: 21 to 28 years) who committed their attacks between 2000 and 2013. Using theoretical coding and constant case comparison, the contribution shows that the two phenomena have overlaps in which developmental processes and social mechanisms are similar. Both school attackers and Jihadi attackers frame their act of violence using cultural scripts and perform the attack on a public stage where victims are attacked not on the basis of personal conflicts but because of their symbolic meaning. Taking into account the similarities in the perpetrators' developmental pathways, the authors propose that it might be more fruitful from an operational perspective to discuss severe target school violence and terrorist attacks under a common concept of demonstrative violence than to artificially assign them to exclusive classes of violence.

[Intervention and Therapy for Perpetrators and Victims of Bullying: A Systematic Review]. / Intervention und Therapie für Täter und Opfer von Schulbullying: Ein systematisches Review.

Intervention and Therapy for Perpetrators and Victims of Bullying: A Systematic Review Bullying is a form of repeated and aggressive behavior with serious consequences for victims and perpetrators, who often suffer from their experiences long after the bullying episodes have ended. However, the therapeutic treatment of bullying and its consequences represents a neglected topic in bullying research. Objective of the present article is to review publications systematically describing targeted interventions for the treatment of bullying (for victims and perpetrators) and associated disorders. The selection process consisted of a comprehensive systematic search in national and international databases that identified 34 targeted interventions in 31 publications from 14 different countries. The review of ten interventions featuring a controlled design revealed that in particular treatments on both the individual and socio-ecological level (particularly parents) are effective. The remaining 24 treatments lack a controlled evaluation. Two thirds of the interventions focus on victims. In contrast to the treatment of perpetrators, the emphasis here lies on group therapy. Although treatments of bullying apply a range of therapeutic approaches and methods, cognitive behavioral therapy is represented most prominently. As a conclusion one can observe an existing lack of research in evidence-based targeted interventions for the treatment of bullying and its consequences for victims and perpetrators. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of therapeutic interventions for bullying in children and adolescents.

The Long-Term Benefits of Positive Self-Presentation via Profile Pictures, Number of Friends and the Initiation of Relationships on Facebook for Adolescents' Self-Esteem and the Initiation of Offline Relationships.

Social networking sites are a substantial part of adolescents' daily lives. By using a longitudinal approach the current study examined the impact of (a) positive self-presentation, (b) number of friends, and (c) the initiation of online relationships on Facebook on adolescents' self-esteem and their initiation of offline relationships, as well as the mediating role of positive feedback. Questionnaire data were obtained from 217 adolescents (68% girls, mean age 16.7 years) in two waves. Adolescents' positive self-presentation and number of friends were found to be related to a higher frequency of receiving positive feedback, which in turn was negatively associated with self-esteem. However, the number of Facebook friends had a positive impact on self-esteem, and the initiation of online relationships positively influenced the initiation of offline relationships over time, demonstrating that Facebook may be a training ground for increasing adolescents' social skills. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

Perceived Severity of Cyberbullying: Differences and Similarities across Four Countries.

Cyberbullying is a ubiquitous topic when considering young people and internet and communication technologies (ICTs). For interventional purposes, it is essential to take into account the perspective of adolescents. This is the reason why our main focus is (1) investigating the role of different criteria in the perceived severity of cyberbullying incidents, and (2) examining the differences between countries in the perceived severity of cyberbullying. The sample consisted of 1,964 adolescents (48.2% girls) from middle and high schools of four different countries, i.e., Estonia, Italy, Germany, and Turkey. The participants' age ranged from 12 to 20 years old with a mean age of 14.49 (SD = 1.66) years. To assess perceived severity, participants rated a set of 128 scenarios, which systematically included one or more of five criteria (intentionality, repetition, imbalance of power, public vs. private, and anonymity) and represented four types of cyberbullying behaviors (Written-Verbal, Visual, Exclusion, Impersonation). The role of different criteria was analyzed using the Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM). Results showed a similar structure across the four countries (invariant except for the latent factors' means). Further, criteria of imbalance of power and, to a lesser extent, intentionality, anonymity, and repetition always in combination, were found to be the most important criteria to define the severity of cyberbullying. Differences between countries highlighted specific features of Turkish students, who perceived all scenarios as more severe than adolescents from other countries and were more sensitive to imbalance of power. German and Italian students showed an opposite perception of anonymity combined with intentionality. For Italian participants, an anonymous attack was less threatening than for participants of other countries, whereas for German students anonymity caused more insecurity and fear. In addition, Italian adolescents were more perceptive of the criterion of intentionality. Finally, Estonian adolescents did not show strong differences in their factor scores compared to adolescents from the other countries.

Prevention of Targeted School Violence by Responding to Students' Psychosocial Crises: The NETWASS Program.

The standardized, indicated school-based prevention program "Networks Against School Shootings" combines a threat assessment approach with a general model of prevention of emergency situations in schools through early intervention in student psychosocial crises and training teachers to recognize warning signs of targeted school violence. An evaluation study in 98 German schools with 3,473 school staff participants (Mage  = 46.2 years) used a quasi-experimental comparison group design with three measurement points (pre, post, and 7 months followup) with schools randomly allocated to implementation conditions. The study found increases in teachers' expertise and evaluation skills, enhanced abilities to identify students experiencing a psychosocial crisis, and positive secondary effects (e.g., teacher-student interaction, feelings of safety).

[The NETWASS prevention model for early identification and assessment of adolescents in psychosocial crisis]. / Strukturen zur Identifikation, Bewertung und Intervention krisenhafter Entwicklungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter.

The research-based NETWASS prevention model aims to enable school staff to identify students experiencing a psychosocial crisis that could lead to severe targeted school violence and to initiate appropriate support measures. A detailed analysis of the adolescent psychosocial crisis is conducted at an early stage by evaluating possible warning behaviors, crisis symptoms, a student's individual and social background, and resources. The model was implemented in 98 schools. During the project duration of seven months staff from 59 schools reported 99 cases of a student's psychosocial crisis. Three experts conducted a content analysis of the reported qualitative data focusing on crisis symptoms of the students as well as the initiated measures. Results show a broad spectrum of risk factors, whereas aggressive behavior of students was reported most frequently. On the basis of theoretical assumptions, the reported cases were divided into three distinct risk groups. A total of eight high-risk cases were observed and reported by the school staff. The school staff mostly reacted to the student crisis by initiating resource-orientated measures, the expertise of child and youth therapists was mostly requested for the high risk cases. By describing the impact of cases and choice of measures undertaken, the study aims to give an overview of incidents schools as well as clinical psychologists and therapists are confronted with.

[Leaking: Frequency and correlates of announcements and threats of homicidal violence reported by Berlin schools between 1996 and 2007]. / Leaking: Häufigkeit und Korrelate von Ankündigungen und Androhungen tödlicher Gewalt nach Meldungen Berliner Schulen zwischen 1996 und 2007.

Threats and announcements of homicidal violence at schools may have massive consequences like evacuations, police searches, criminal investigations, or loss of the sense of security by students, teachers, and parents. However, there is a lack of systematic studies about that phenomenon. The present article would like to contribute to closing the research gap. It presents results about the frequency and structure of threats and announcements of homicidal violence in schools in Berlin. The study is based on an official dataset from school administration reports of violent acts in Berlin schools which has been studied within the Berlin Leaking-Projekt. The sample consists of 427 threats and announcements of homicidal violence between 1996 and 2007. The study is an exceptional analysis of the phenomenon: it presents crosscutting results about frequency and characteristics of threats and the threatening students as well as results of a longitudinal analysis about the development of threats and announcements. Results show a rate of 0,3 threats and announcements per 1 000 student and year. During the observation time span a steady increase of threats and announcements ­ year by year, influenced by imitation effects after school shootings ­ has been observed.