Unique and Interactive Effects of Empathy and Social Status on Involvement in Bullying

This study investigated the relationships between affective and cognitive empathy, social preference and perceived popularity, and involvement in bullying situations by bullying others or defending the victimized children. The participants were 266 primary and 195 secondary school students. Affective and cognitive empathy, as well as the status variables, had some significant main effects on involvement in bullying. In addition, several interaction effects emerged. For instance, the positive association between affective empathy and defending behavior was stronger among boys who had a high status (i.e., were highly preferred) in the group. The results highlight the importance of studying child-by-environment models, which take into account both child characteristics and interpersonal variables in predicting social adjustment.     

Effects of Defending: The Longitudinal Relations Among Peer‐perceived Defending of Victimized Peers,Victimization, and Liking

Previous research has shown victims of peer aggression to be positively impacted by being defended by peers, but how enacted defending impacts defenders themselves is not thoroughly understood. In this study, the longitudinal associations between peer‐perceived liking, enacted defending, and defender's own victimization were investigated among 336 adolescents (M age = 13.21 years). Peer perceived liking was expected to predict defending. It was also hypothesized that a reputation for defending victimized peers would be related to being perceived as less victimized and more liked over time. Results showed that peer perceived liking was not predictive of defending. Enacted defending was associated with a decrease in victimization over time, but also a decrease in peer‐perceived liking. Defenders may benefit from enacted defending by decreasing their own victimization, but this benefit is nuanced.     

Investigating the association between callous‐unemotional traits with relational bullying and victimization: A cross‐national study

Prior research supports an association between callous‐unemotional (CU) traits with relational bullying, but evidence associating CU traits with relational victimization is limited. Further, the relationship between CU traits with relational “bully,” “bully‐victim,” and “victim” classifications has been largely neglected. The current study addresses these critical gaps in the literature using a cross‐national study design. The sample comprised of 1887 (51.5% of girls) Greek and Cypriot children (MAge = 11.17) who completed a battery of self‐report measures. Group differences suggested that children in the relational bully and bully‐victim groups scored higher on CU traits compared to children in the victim and low‐risk groups. Although these associations were similar across countries, boys in Greece were more likely to be identified in the bullying only group. In contrast, boys in Cyprus represented the higher percentage identified as bully‐victims and girls in Cyprus represented the higher percentage identified as victim‐only. Regression analysis results indicated that CU traits predicted relational bullying but not victimization. Notwithstanding, other important unexamined factors known to contribute to relational bullying and victimization, our findings suggest that prevention efforts should consider CU traits in order to protect youth from relational bullying. However, differences between countries and gender should also be taken into account.     

The Role of Perceived Friendship Self‐efficacy as a Protective Factor against the Negative Effects of Social Victimization

This study examined perceived friendship self‐efficacy as a protective factor against the negative effects associated with social victimization in adolescents. The sample consisted of 1218 participants (557 males, age range 12–17 years). Perceived friendship self‐efficacy was associated with lower internalizing scores irrespective of adolescents' social victimization level and with lower externalizing scores at low, but not high, levels of social victimization. Furthermore, the relationship between perceived friendship self‐efficacy and all forms of adjustment did not differ between boys and girls, or between adolescents in both reciprocated and unilateral very best friendships. The role of perceived friendship self‐efficacy as a protective factor amenable to intervention in social bullying at school is discussed.     

Socialization of Physical and Social Aggression in Early Adolescents' Peer Groups: High‐status Peers,Individual Status,and Gender

The influence of high‐status peers on a target individual's physical and manipulative social aggression in peer groups was examined in a diverse sample of seventh‐grade students. A total of 245 individual members belonging to 65 groups were included in analyses. Aggression was assessed by peer and victim nominations in the fall and spring semesters of seventh grade. High‐status peers rather than low‐status peers in a group had a strong influence on individual members' physical and social aggression. High‐status peers were particularly influential on low‐status individual members' social aggression. A similar pattern was found for physical aggression in boys' groups. These findings imply that high‐status members' aggression rather than the average of all members' may better represent the group norm. Special attention needs to be given to high‐status aggressive adolescents in future intervention and prevention of aggression in schools.     

From Narcissistic Exploitativeness to Bullying Behavior: The Mediating Role of Approval‐of‐aggression Beliefs

This study examined the role of approval‐of‐aggression beliefs in the relationship between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior in an Asian sample (N = 809) comprising elementary children and middle school adolescents. Narcissistic exploitativeness was significantly and positively associated with both bullying behavior and approval‐of‐aggression beliefs, and approval‐of‐aggression beliefs was significantly and positively associated with bullying behavior. Additionally, findings indicated that approval‐of‐aggression beliefs was a statistically significant mediator and 53 percent of the total effect of narcissistic exploitativeness on bullying behavior was mediated by approval‐of‐aggression beliefs. Approval‐of‐aggression beliefs did not moderate the association between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior. There are important theoretical implications as well as implications for prevention and intervention efforts targeting aggressive, bullying behavior among children and adolescents.     

Refining victims’ self‐reports on bullying: Assessing frequency,intensity, power imbalance,and goal‐directedness

Bullying can be differentiated from other types of peer aggression by four key characteristics: frequency, intensity, power imbalance, and goal‐directedness. Existing instruments, however, usually assess the presence of these characteristics implicitly. Can self‐report instruments be refined using additional questions that assess each characteristic? We examined (a) what proportion of children classified as victims by the commonly used Revised Olweus’ bully/victim questionnaire (BVQ) also experienced the characteristics of bullying, and (b) the extent to which the presence of the characteristics was associated with emotional (affect, school, and classroom well‐being), relational (friendship, defending), and social status (popularity, rejection) adjustment correlates among victims. Using data from 1,738 students (M_age = 10.6; grades 5–8), including 138 victims according to the BVQ, the results showed that 43.1% of the children who were classified as victims by BVQ experienced all the four characteristics of bullying. Frequency ratings of victimization did not capture experiences that involved a power imbalance. Victims who reported all four key characteristics had greater emotional, relational, and social status problems than victims who did not report all characteristics. Thus, researchers who focus on victimization for diagnostic and prevention purposes can enrich self‐report measurements of bullying victimization by adding questions that assess the characteristics explicitly.     

Peer Victimization,Self‐esteem,and Ego Resilience Types in Adolescents: A Prospective Analysis of Person‐context Interactions

This study examined bidirectional, longitudinal associations between peer victimisation and self‐esteem in adolescents, and tested for moderator effects of undercontrolling, overcontrolling, and ego‐resilient personality types in these associations. Data were used from 774 adolescents ages 11–16 years who participated in a three‐wave (i.e., 2005, 2006, and 2007) longitudinal study. Structural equation modelling analyses in Mplus demonstrated that, controlling for earlier levels of self‐esteem, self‐reported peer victimization was associated with lower self‐esteem across one‐year time intervals. Vice versa, however, low self‐esteem was not predictive of subsequent self‐reported victimization. Evidence was also found for a moderator effect of personality type on the longitudinal associations between self‐esteem and victimization. Only in the subgroup of overcontrolling adolescents was lower self‐esteem related to subsequently higher levels of peer victimization; their undercontrolling and ego‐resilient peers were unaffected.     

Prospective Associations between Peer Aggression and Victimization: The Moderating Roles of Physiological Stress Reactivity and Gender

The present investigation examined whether heightened skin conductance reactivity (SCLR) to peer stress strengthened the prospective associations between physical and relational aggression and victimization, and whether associations were stronger for physical forms of aggression and victimization among boys and relational forms of aggression and victimization among girls. A total of 91 children [M age = 10.18 years, standard deviation (SD) = .68] were assessed twice over 1 year. At the first assessment, SCLR in response to recounting a relational stressor (e.g., exclusion; SCLR‐R) and an instrumental stressor (e.g., property theft; SCLR‐I), and teacher‐reported aggression were measured. Parents reported on child victimization at both time points. Among youth with heightened SCLR‐I, physical aggression was associated with increases in physical victimization for boys and decreases in physical victimization for girls. Among youth with heightened SCLR‐R, relational aggression was associated with increases in physical victimization for girls only. Results were largely consistent with the hypothesis that aggressors with a propensity to exhibit negative displays of emotion, as indexed by heightened sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reactivity to peer stress, may be especially likely to suffer peer victimization. Gender‐specific effects highlight the importance of including both physical and relational forms of aggression and victimization to capture victimization risk among aggressive boys and girls.     

男民工与阶层、社会性别、性的主体建构

农民工的“性”问题日益受到社会的关注。本文基于北京地区四个工地136位民工的访谈,以工地男民工“谈小姐”为切入点,将“谈小姐”视为男民工日常生活中的言说实践,以扎根理论的视角来探究“谈话”这种日常活动的建构意义。本文并不停留于男民工对“小姐”形象（谈论的客体）的构建,而是更进一步地探讨：（1）在“谈小姐”的言说实践过程中男民工如何构建出自身的阶层地位、社会性别与性文化;（2）分析阶层、社会性别、性这三者的关系。通过这种主体建构的呈现,本文试图揭示男民工如何寻找自己在这个社会中的定位,以及寻找现实生活中积极的生存策略。     

Older Persons’ Views on Using Cash‐for‐Care Allowances at the Crossroads of Gender,Socio‐economic Status and Care Needs in Vienna

The article aims to contribute to understanding social inequalities resulting from familization (or de‐familization) tendencies among cash‐for‐care beneficiaries in a Conservative welfare state. It highlights justifications for choices in accessing and using care in a cash‐for‐care scheme from the perspective of care recipients aged 80 years and older in Vienna. Along key dimensions characterizing care recipients’ experiences, we identify four different user groups, which reflect recipients’ individual characteristics, particularly gender, socio‐economic status (SES), and care needs, and the respective care arrangement. The groups are dubbed: (1) the self‐confident; (2) the illiterate; (3) the dependent; and (4) the lonely. Narrative interviews with 15 frail older people were held in 2014 and analyzed using the framework analysis method. Results show that familiarity with support structures associates with higher SES, while those who depend on others for acquiring information or organizing care express ambivalence in choosing between formal and informal care. Engagement in deciding which care type to use is limited among people of lower SES or with complex care needs, but own experience as informal caregiver for a family member increases care recipients’ long‐term care (LTC) system literacy. Gender differences among care recipients were limited, yet middle‐class female recipients often expressed normative claims for family care from female relatives. We conclude that unconditional care allowance schemes may reinforce existing gender relations, particularly among informal caregivers, as well as underpin socio‐economic differences among LTC users in old‐age. Results also partly question the assumptions of choice and empowerment implicit in many cash‐for‐care schemes.     

Dimensions of Social Status in Preadolescent Peer Groups: Likability, Perceived Popularity, and Social Dominance

A multidimensional, interdisciplinary model of social status was developed and examined in a sample of 487 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade elementary school students. Participants were clustered into seven subtypes (i.e., High Status, Perceived Popular/Dominant, Well‐Liked/Dominant, Average, Low Dominant/Unpopular, Disliked, and Low Status) based on the dimensions of likability, perceived popularity, and social dominance emphasized, respectively, by psychologists working within the sociometric tradition, sociologists of education, and ethologists. The meaningfulness of the cluster solution was supported by cluster differences on peer‐reported social prerogatives of status (e.g., admiration, social control, leadership) and self‐reported social characteristics. Furthermore, each cluster had a distinct behavioral profile. It was argued that a broader, multidisciplinary conceptualization of social status should lead to a better understanding of the complex dynamics present in children's peer groups in middle childhood as well as the tools preadolescents need to successfully navigate the peer system.     

Learning‐related Social Skills as a Mediator between Teacher Instruction and Child Achievement in Head Start

Using a subsample of the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2006, this study examined the associations between the amount of teacher instruction in 292 Head Start classrooms with changes in young children's (n = 936) early academic achievement and learning‐related social skills from ages three to five. In general, during the early years, children exhibited relatively stable academic and learning‐related social skills. Although the amount of teacher instruction did not predict children's short‐term academic growth directly, it did predict it indirectly through improvements in learning‐related social skills, with benefits lasting through the end of kindergarten. These findings demonstrate that gains in children's learning‐related social skills may be necessary before academic gains can be realized.     

It Takes Two to Fight in School,Too: A Social Relations Model of the Psychometric Properties and Relative Variance of Dyadic Aggression and Victimization in Middle School

Aggressive behavior has been well studied in terms of interindividual differences among aggressors and victims, but has been understudied, especially within naturalistic contexts, in terms of aggressor–victim relationships. The social relations model (SRM) is a powerful conceptual and analytic tool for studying dyadic phenomena, and we describe the use of multivariate SRM to study aggression. Boys and girls (N = 210) in middle schools (sixth and seventh grades) completed a newly created dyadic aggression and victimization inventory (DAVI). Results support the reliability and validity of the DAVI in assessing inter‐individual and inter‐dyadic differences in aggression and victimization. Occurrences of aggression were accounted for primarily by inter‐dyadic variability, indicating the importance of considering aggressor–victim relationships. We discuss the implications of this relationship focus for future research and intervention efforts.     

Social inclusion,exclusion, and well‐being in Australia: meaning and measurement

This paper begins by examining the social inclusion agenda that formed the centrepiece of the social policy agenda of the Australian Government between 2007 and 2013. It discusses several features of the agenda, including its objectives (as articulated by the government) and some of the administrative and bureaucratic mechanisms that were put in place to assist with its development and implementation. Although no formal assessment of the impact of the agenda is attempted, some of the ways in which such an agenda could make a difference are identified. The paper then summarises the social inclusion indicator framework developed by the Australian Social Inclusion Unit with assistance and advice from the Australian Social Inclusion Board, and compares its structure and content with the frameworks developed by two of Australia's leading social research institutes. Finally, data from two national surveys of poverty and social exclusion are used to examine recent changes in social exclusion and the association between the severity of exclusion and levels of subjective well‐being. These latter results show clearly that subjective well‐being is consistently lower among those who experience the greatest degree of social exclusion, suggesting that exclusion as identified and measured reflects external constraints rather than internal preferences.     

Mother–Child Reminiscing About Peer Experiences and Children's Peer‐related Self‐views and Social Competence

This study examined mother–child reminiscing about children's experiences with peers and its relation to children's peer‐related self‐views and social competence. Sixty‐three mothers and their preschool‐aged children discussed at home two specific past events involving the child and his or her peers, one event being positive and one negative. The children's self‐views in peer relationships were assessed at school during individual interviews, and their social competence was rated by mothers. Both maternal and child participation in the reminiscing, in terms of reminiscing style and content, were uniquely associated with children's peer‐related self‐views and social competence. The results suggest the important role of family narrative practices in children's social development.     

Social participation,health‐related behavior,and depression of older adults living alone in Korea

This study aims to identify the effects of social participation on depression among adults over 60 years old living alone in Korea, focusing on the mediating effect of health‐related behavior on the social participation–depression relationship. The study relies on secondary data analysis using the 6th wave of the Korea Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and structural equation modeling method was employed for analyses. The findings indicate that older adults' participation in religious and social gatherings decreases depressive symptoms. The study also finds that regular eating behavior, drinking, and exercise also act as significant mediators, as older adults' participation in social gatherings is associated with those health‐related behaviors and that they also reduce depression. The results suggest that social participation by older adults who live alone is crucial not only for providing them with support but also for encouraging health‐related activities that can have direct effects on their mental health. Implications for social work practice are also discussed.     

Homophobic Name‐calling,Peer‐groups,and Masculinity: The Socialization of Homophobic Behavior in Adolescents

Social network analysis and multilevel modeling were used to examine the formation of homophobic name‐calling behavior in adolescents. Specifically, peer group contextual and socialization effects on homophobic name‐calling as well as the influence of masculinity attitudes, general bullying perpetration, and victimization were tested. Participants included 493 fifth‐ through eighth‐grade students from two middle schools. Results indicated that peer groups play an important role in the formation of homophobic name‐calling. Additionally, students who were victims of homophobic name‐calling over time increased their own perpetration of homophobic name‐calling. Non‐homophobic bullying was also related to homophobic name‐calling, but only for male peer groups. And finally, the role of masculinity attitudes was shown to be complex, as peer group masculinity attitudes were significantly predictive of an individual's homophobic perpetration; however, this effect did not remain significant over time. Results suggest that homophobic name‐calling during early adolescence is strongly influenced by peers and rooted in gender and masculinity.