Bullying victimization is a very common, complex, and potentially damaging form of violence among children and adolescents. Bullying is defined as unwanted, aggressive behavior, which involves a real or perceived social power imbalance. One in 10 public schools reports at least one case of serious violent crime, such as aggressive bullying,…

Background: Middle school victimization and problem behaviors often co-occur, but little is known about patterns of co-occurrence, or how long effects persist into adulthood. Objective: Drawing on general strain theory, this study aimed to identify sex-specific profiles of victimization and problem behaviors during middle school, and their…

Peer victimization is a common concern in adolescence that includes both relational (e.g., exclusion, rumor spreading) and overt (e.g., hitting, threatening) forms (Crick & Bigbee, 1998). Relational and overt peer victimization have shown to be differentially associated with depressive symptoms, with relational peer victimization showing a…

Bullying bystanders' reactions are important for either stopping or perpetuating bullying behaviors. Given school-based bullying programs' focus on bystanders, understanding the associations between school-level factors and individual bystander responses can improve intervention efficacy. Data from 64,670 adolescents were used to examine bullying…

Introduction: Recent evidence demonstrates an association between social media addiction (SMA) and aggressive behaviors; however, the longitudinal relationship between these two variables remains not fully understood. The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between SMA and aggressive behaviors (overt and relational…

The goal of this study was to examine the unique associations of aggression with peer status in a non-Western context. The moderating effects of peer community and teacher closeness at the classroom level and gender and grade at the individual level were considered. Participants were 1954 third to sixth grade students (M[subscript age] = 9.60…

Peer victimization is a widespread and heterogeneous phenomenon, especially during the transition to middle school, and is associated with numerous negative consequences. However, previous research is limited by variable-centric analyses and data manipulations that either fail to capture or mask the complexity of peer victimization many students…

The current study investigated the benefits of adolescents' participation in physical activity (PA), including physical education (PE) and leisure-time sports activity (LTSA), on their subjective wellbeing (SWB), namely social connectedness, depression, and aggression. Specifically, the study explored the mediating role of social connectedness in…

In recent years, bullying victimization has received increasing attention from researchers worldwide. The link between bullying victimization and reactive aggression is well-established in numerous studies. However, longitudinal association and underlying mechanisms remain less explored. This study examined gender-specific effects of traditional…

The aim of this study was to verify the moderating effect of the relationship between exposure to violent online media and cyber offending in adolescents. The study utilized information from the 2019 cyber violence survey; data from 3,202 adolescents (mean age = 16.56, SD = 1.71; boys = 1,800, girls = 1,402) were used for the final analysis. The…

The current study was designed to assess early adolescents' response evaluation and decision for hypothetical peer victimization vignettes. Participants were 336 (59% girls; X-bar age = 12.55) seventh and eighth graders from one school in the Midwestern United States. Adolescents read a hypothetical online or offline social situation and answered…

Research has identified at least three patterns of direct involvement in bullying and victimization: bullying, bullying-victimized, and predominantly victimized. However, little is known about risk and protective factors for these patterns. As such, the goals of the present study were to establish these patterns and examine risk and protective…

Most studies of school bullying in China are atheoretical. To fill the gap in the literature, we introduce criminological theories in an attempt to test propositions broadly derived from these perspectives in the study of physical bullying. Relying on data collected from 12 middle schools (Grades 7 to 9) in three cities with information on both…

This study's goal was to identify patterns of risk and promotive factors across multiple social-ecological domains and their associations with adolescents' problem behaviors (aggression, substance use, and other delinquent behaviors), victimization, and distress symptoms. Participants were a mostly African American (79%) sample of 2711 middle…

Peer nominations and teacher ratings were used to examine age and sex differences in behaviors associated with perceived coolness during middle childhood. Participants were 470 students in Grades 1, 3, and 5. Participants nominated peers whom they perceived as cool; separate scores were calculated for samesex coolness and cross-sex coolness (i.e.,…