Early adolescents' motivations to defend victims in school bullying and their perceptions of student–teacher relationships: A self-determination theory approach

The aim of this study was to investigate whether various dimensions of student–teacher relationships were associated with different types of motivation to defend victims in bullying and to determine the association between these types of motivations and various bystander behaviors in bullying situations among early adolescents in Italy. Data were collected from 405 Italian adolescents who completed a survey in their classroom. Results showed that warm student–teacher relationships were positively associated with defending victims and with autonomous motivation to defend victims. In contrast, conflictual student–teacher relationships were positively associated with passive bystanding and with extrinsic motivation to defend victims. Different forms of motivation to defend were found to be mediators between student–teacher relationship qualities and bystander behaviors in school bullying. Our findings suggest that teachers should build warm and caring student–teacher relationships to enhance students' autonomous motivation to defend victims of bullying as well as their inclination to defend the victims in practice.     

Perceptions of self,significant others,and teacher–child relationships in indiscriminately friendly children

ObjectiveDespite increasing research on indiscriminate friendliness in children, almost no research exists on social-cognitive deficits that are supposed to underlie indiscriminately friendly behavior. In this study, we compared indiscriminately friendly children with controls regarding their perceptions of self, reliability trust in significant others, and perceptions of the teacher–child relationship.MethodChildren's perceptions were compared in two samples: a sample of 33 likely cases for disinhibited reactive attachment disorder (RAD) from special education for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (75.76% boys, M_age = 8.52, 96.9% Caucasian, 33.3% and 45.5% of their mothers completed primary or secondary education, respectively) was matched on sex, age, and socio-economic status with a sample of 33 controls from general education. Children participated individually in several interviews assessing global and social self-concept, reliability trust in significant others, teacher–child relationship perceptions, and vocabulary. Parents and teachers completed a screening questionnaire for RAD and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.ResultsLikely disinhibited RAD-cases showed more indiscriminate friendliness and more problem behavior in general according to their parents and teachers than controls. Furthermore, likely RAD-cases reported a more positive global self-concept, more reliability trust in significant others, and more dependency in the teacher–child relationship than controls.ConclusionsThe results are in line with clinical observations of indiscriminately friendly children and findings in clinical samples of maltreated or attachment disrupted children but contrast hypotheses from developmental attachment research. Further research is needed to explain the more positive perceptions of indiscriminately friendly children.     

Cross-informant agreement about bullying and victimization among eight-year-olds: whose information best predicts psychiatric caseness 10–15 years later?

Objective  To examine cross-informant agreement and whose information (parents, teachers, children) about childhood bullying and victimization carry the strongest weight to late adolescent psychiatric outcome. The importance of frequency of bullying in such predictions is addressed. Methods  Information from 2,713 boys about bullying and victimization at the age of eight was correlated with information about psychiatric disorder at 18–23. Results  Agreement between informants was poor. Teachers reported higher levels of frequent bullying than others, whereas children reported the highest percentage of victimization. All three informant groups’ reports of “frequent bullying” predicted later psychiatric disorder. Teachers’ reports of “frequent victimization” was the strongest predictor of later psychiatric disorder. Informants’ report about “infrequent bullying” showed at most a rather low risk of adverse outcome. When the associations between bullying/victimization and psychiatric outcome were adjusted with total psychopathology score at age 8, none of the associations remained significant. Conclusion  “Frequent bullying” behaviour of boys is a marker of present and later psychopathology. The education system and school health-care service in mid- childhood are of great importance for the early detection of bullying and prevention of later adverse outcomes. A closer integration of these systems in the context of school should be promoted.     

Children’s Perceived Competence Scale: reevaluation in a population of Japanese elementary and junior high school students

Background

It is important for children to maintain high self-perceived competence and self-esteem, and there are few measures to evaluate them through elementary to junior high school days in Japan. To evaluate psychometric properties of the Children’s Perceived Competence Scale (CPCS).

Methods

Data were collected from 697 elementary school and 956 junior high school students. Some of these students completed measures for construct validity, whereas others repeated the CPCS.

Results

The results demonstrated the three-factor structure of the CPCS: cognitive (nine items), social (eight items) and physical (nine items). Factorial invariance was confirmed between elementary and junior high school students, as well as between boys and girls. Construct validity was excellent. Scores on the cognitive, physical and general self-worth domains declined with increasing age. Boys scored significantly higher than girls on physical and general self-worth domains.

Conclusions

The CPCS is a valid and reliable measure of perceived competence in Japanese children aged 6–15 years. The CPCS may be applied to students from elementary through junior high school days as a measure of self-perceived and psychological state in Japan.

     

Social competence and emotional/behaviour problems in 6–16 year-old Swedish school children

Social competence and emotional/behavioural problems as reported by parents on a Swedish version of the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) were examined in 1308 Swedish school-aged children/adolescents recruited from a stratified, random sample of schools in urban, semirural, and rural areas in Uppsala County, Sweden, and from Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden. The overall response rate was 80.6%. Few gender differences were found, but adolescents received higher problem scores and higher social competence scores than the younger children. Children from the middle SES groups were regarded as having higher social competence levels, and children from the lower SES groups had higher emotional/behaviour problem scores. Children from the larger cities consistently obtained higher problem scores. Those who had received help during the previous year because of psychological problems (2%) had much higher problems scores than those who had not received help. The levels of emotional/behavioural problems in children and adolescents in the present sample seem to be comparable to those reported in similar Scandinavian studies where the CBCL has been used. However, they were considerably lower than those commonly reported in epidemiological studies of children/adolescents from other countries and cultures. Accepted: 26 August 1998     

COVID-19 impact on high school student’s education and mental health: A cohort survey in China

BACKGROUNDThe ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the universal implementation of control measures are fundamentally affecting every aspect of our society and daily lives.AIMTo evaluate the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and their associated factors as well as the effects and attitudes towards online education in Chinese high school students.METHODSA total of 883 students were included. The first, second and third-year students of a high school in Lanzhou, Gansu province of China were invited to participate in this study. They were requested to involve their parents to complete the survey together. A detailed questionnaire of 65 questions was designed and divided into five sections. The survey was anonymously conducted via WeChat, a Chinese multipurpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app.RESULTSOverall, 32.94% of students experienced post-traumatic stress disorder due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The majority of students (60.82%) felt that online education was not (10.76%) or less effective (50.06%) in terms of gaining knowledge and improving practical and communications skills. Correlation analysis revealed that the class level, residential background and whether living with parents were significantly linked with the effectiveness and satisfaction of the online education system. Of the final year students, 74.2% said that the COVID-19 outbreak has negatively affected their preparation for the college entrance exam, and 68% of students felt that this outbreak increased psychological pressure for their college entrance examination preparation. In case of having COVID-19 symptoms during the exam, 50.7%, 13.3%, and 10.2% would notify the proctor, teacher and parents, respectively.CONCLUSIONWe found a high prevalence rate of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in high school students. Thus, our results call for urgent attention from both government and schools to implement effective interventions to cope with the psychological effects and the disturbance of education by COVID-19 on children.     

Making a difference in adult–child relationships: Evidence from an adult–child communication intervention in Botswana,Malawi, and Mozambique

Girls are vulnerable to HIV in part because the social systems in which they live have failed to protect them. This study evaluates a program aimed at strengthening adult–child relationships to reduce girls' vulnerability to HIV in Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique. In addition to an extensive process evaluation, a cross-sectional post-intervention survey was conducted in the three countries. The total sample size was 1418 adolescent girls (ages 11–18). Bivariate and multilevel, multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the association between adult program exposure and adult–child relationship improvement. In Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique, girls whose mothers and fathers participated in the program, as compared to those whose parents did not participate in the program, were significantly more likely to report that their relationships with their parents had improved. Research has shown the important role that adults can play in the mitigation of youth risk taking behavior.     

Clinical anxiety,cortisol and interleukin-6: Evidence for specificity in emotion–biology relationships

Anxiety confers increased risk for inflammatory diseases, and elevated inflammatory activity in anxious individuals may contribute to this increased risk. One complication, however, is that anxiety could be associated with inflammatory activity either through a specific anxiety pathway or through a more general negative emotionality pathway. To investigate, we measured levels of the stress hormone cortisol, the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6), and the systemic inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as depression and neuroticism, in clinically anxious and non-anxious adults. Compared with non-anxious participants, clinically anxious participants exhibited significantly lower levels of morning cortisol and significantly higher levels of IL-6, independent of age, sex, and depressive symptoms. These group differences were robust when controlling for neuroticism. Conversely, the groups had equivalent levels of CRP in all analyses. Results are indicative of anxiety-specific effects on inflammatory activity, and highlight a pathway by which anxiety may increase risk for inflammatory diseases.     

Frequency of snoring,rather than apnea–hypopnea index,predicts both cognitive and behavioral problems in young children

ObjectivePrimary snoring (PS) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) not only affect the quality of sleep in a large number of young children, but have also been repeatedly associated with a variety of behavioral and cognitive problems. However, little is known about the potentially differing relationships of behavioral and cognitive pathology within the sleep disordered breathing (SDB) spectrum.MethodThis study examined data from an enriched for snoring community sample of 631 children aged between 4 and 10 years. Multivariate mixed models were used to assess the relationship between both snoring and the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI). Numerous cognitive and behavioral variables were used, while adjusting for several important demographic variables. These were followed by univariate analyses of individual measures and sensitivity analyses.ResultsResults indicated that snoring status is a significant predictor of general behavioral (p = 0.008) and cognitive (p = 0.013) domains, even after adjusting for baseline covariates and AHI severity. More frequent snoring was associated with poorer outcomes independent of AHI. However, AHI did not emerge as a significant predictor of the overall cognitive functioning domain (p = 0.377). Additionally, although AHI was a significant predictor of the general behavioral functioning domain (p = 0.008), the significance pattern and nature of its relationship with individual behavioral measures were inconsistent in post-hoc analyses.ConclusionThe findings of this study suggest that general behavioral and cognitive function may decline with greater snoring severity. Further, snoring should not simply be assumed to represent a lower severity level of SDB, but should be examined as a potential predictor of relevant outcomes.     

Prospective relationships between stigma,mental health,and resilience in a multi-city cohort of transgender and nonbinary individuals in the United States, 2016–2019

Purpose

Gender-based stigma is a fundamental cause of mental health disparities among transgender and non-binary (TGNB) individuals, while resilience factors may be protective. We examined prospective relationships between gender-based enacted stigma, psychological distress, and resilience factors among TGNB individuals.

Methods

Between 2016 and 2017, we enrolled 330 TGNB individuals in three metropolitan areas in the U.S. in a prospective cohort study focused on gender identity development, risk, and resilience across the lifespan. Using multilevel regression, we examined prospective associations between enacted gender-based stigma and psychological distress (measured by the Global Severity Index/BSI-18), and examined transgender pride and social support as moderators, adjusting for age, sex assigned at birth, race/ethnicity, education, and income.

Results

Our sample was diverse in age (M = 34.4, range 16–87) and race/ethnicity (56.4% non-White). Over 2 years of follow-up, there was a decrease in reported gender-based stigma (b = − 0.61, p < 0.001) and transgender pride (b = − 0.14, p = 0.003), increase in social support (b = 0.21, p < 0.001), and no change in psychological distress. In adjusted analyses, gender-based stigma was positively associated with psychological distress (b = 1.10, p < 0.001) and social support was negatively associated with psychological distress (b = − 2.60, p < 0.001). Transgender pride moderated the relationship between stigma and psychological distress (p < 0.01), such that the association was stronger for lower levels of transgender pride.

Conclusions

Our study provides longitudinal evidence for the deleterious role of gender-based stigma among TGNB individuals. Future interventions should consider fostering transgender pride and social support to promote mental health and mitigate negative effects of gender-based stigma.

     

Screening for emotional and behavioural problems amongst 5–11-year-old school children in Karachi,Pakistan

Background While a number of studies in the western countries have provided estimates of prevalence for child psychiatric morbidity and associated risk factors, relatively little is known about child psychiatric problems and risk factors in developing countries like Pakistan. Method A cross sectional survey of 5–11-year-old children attending main stream private and community schools in Karachi was conducted. Seven private and eight community schools agreed to participate. About 1488 consent forms were sent to 700 parents of private school and 788 parents of community school children. A total of 675 parents agreed to participate in the study. The response rate was 45.4%. Assessment of children’s mental health was conducted using Strength and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) by parents based on cut-off provided by Goodman. Results About 47% children were rated as normal, 19% as borderline and 34% as abnormal by the parents. Ordinal regression was used to identify factors associated with parent’s rating. The odds of female children of being normal was 1.5 times relative to male children, adjusting for school type and mother’s education (ORadj = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1–2.0). Children attending private schools were more likely to be normal as compared to community school children, adjusting for child’s gender and mother’s education (ORadj = 2.3, 95% CI: 1.3–4.0). Conclusion In the present study, prevalence of child mental health problems was higher than reported in studies from other countries. Prevalence was higher amongst children attending community schools. Consistent with most studies, male children were at a higher risk than females. There is a need for developing programs to train, sensitise and mobilize teachers and parents regarding child’s psychological, emotional and behavioural problems with special attention to community schools. Since the male child is at a greater risk we should be cognizant of this while evaluating children for psychopathology.     

Morningness–eveningness correlates with sleep time,quality, and hygiene in secondary school students: a multilevel analysis

At the onset of puberty, students shift their sleep to later hours, but school starts early. It is suggested that evening orientation and early school start times do not go well together. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate sleep problems in adolescence, and it was expected that the adolescents' eveningness orientation is associated with many sleep-related problems. Students of secondary education (n = 3201; mean = 13.8 ± 1.8 years) filled out a self-report questionnaire containing measures of morningness–eveningness, sleep time (midpoint of sleep, social “jetlag”), sleep length (on schooldays and on weekends), sleep quality, and sleep hygiene as well as questions on electronic screen media use. The impact of circadian preference on sleep time (midpoint of sleep and social jetlag), sleep length (on schooldays and on weekends), sleep quality, and sleep hygiene of adolescents was tested via multilevel analyses while controlling for covariates on the student level (age, sex, screen media use, and time leaving home) and on the class level (school type, grade level, and school start time). Morningness–eveningness was a significant predictor of all dependent variables and associations were highest (β > 0.40) for midpoint of sleep, social jetlag, problems with going to bed, problems with falling asleep, and problems with returning to wakefulness. Providing guidance for parents on sleep hygiene behavior routines for their child, an educational program in sleep hygiene, and later school start times could help to synchronize adolescents' circadian rhythms to daily educational and social demands.     

Who is best at predicting children's anxiety in response to a social evaluative task?: A comparison of child,parent, and teacher reports

The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the validity of child, parent, and teacher reports of child social anxiety in predicting the child's responses to a social evaluative task. Children, parents, and teachers each completed a measure of social anxiety, as well as a measure that asked them to predict the child's anxiety during a behavioral approach task (BAT) of reading aloud in front of a video camera. Consistent with previous literature, analyses revealed poor agreement across informants. Importantly, children's reports predicted their own anxious feelings and, to some degree, their behaviors during the task, whereas other informants' reports did not. We recommend that further research examine the relative validity of multiple informants' reports in predicting children's real-life behavior.     

Mobbing, bullying and other forms of aggression among pupils as a source of stress in school. How far the "victims" are involved?

Aggression among pupils is one of the frequent sources of stress in school. Aggression among pupils can display diverse forms and also has different origins. In this contribution, bullying, mobbing and relational aggression as different forms of aggression were described, based on recent research. In addition, a psychoanalytic treatment of a female adolescent is presented who suffered from mobbing. The treatment includes 70 hours work with the female patient and additional work with her parents. Based on this case study, it became obvious that it necessary to precisely analyse the own contribution for eliciting and maintaining aggression.     

Co-occurring risk behaviors among White, Black, and Hispanic US high school adolescents with suicide attempts requiring medical attention, 1999–2007: Implications for future prevention initiatives

Purpose  

To identify subtypes of adolescent suicide attempters by examining risk profiles related to substance use, violent behavior, and depressive symptoms. To examine the relationship between these subtypes and having had two or more suicide attempts during the past year. To explore race and gender differences across subtypes of suicide attempters.     

The Effectiveness and Micro-costing Analysis of a Universal,School-Based,Social–Emotional Learning Programme in the UK: A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial

There are a growing number of school-based interventions designed to promote children’s social and emotional learning. One such intervention, PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies), was evaluated in a randomised controlled trial involving 5074 pupils aged 4–6 years at baseline in 56 primary schools across a large city in the UK. The programme was implemented for two academic years. The primary outcome measure was the teacher-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). A secondary measure was the PATHS Teacher Rating Scale (PTRS). Observations of child and teacher behaviours were undertaken in a third of intervention and control schools using the Teacher–Pupil Observation Tool (T-POT). Regarding fidelity, dose and adherence were measured via weekly logs completed by teachers, and a semi-structured questionnaire completed by PATHS coaches was used as a global measure of fidelity (capturing adherence, dose and quality). A cost-consequence analysis examined programme costs from a multi-agency public sector perspective. At 1 year post-baseline, there were no statistically significant differences between the programme and control groups on the SDQ subscales or the SDQ total difficulties and impact scores. There were statistically significant differences favouring the programme group for six out of 11 subscales on the secondary outcome measure (PTRS). At 2 years post-baseline, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups on either measure. Fidelity, according to the global measure, was relatively strong, and there was no relationship between fidelity and treatment effects. The average cost of PATHS was £12,666 per school or £139 per child. The study, which was fully powered and independent of the programme developer, shows no statistically significant effect of the programme on child behaviour or emotional well-being.Trial registration site and number: www.controlled-trials.com: ISRCTN 32534848.