The socialisation of adolescent boys and girls takes place primarily online in virtual environments, where cyberbullying is one of the greatest current social dangers faced by that age group. Socio-emotional e-competencies (i.e., competencies that apply specifically to online environments) are a protective factor against cyberaggression and…

Previous research assessing differences in teachers' perceptions of bullying (e.g., seriousness, empathy, intervention likelihood) have focused primarily on physical, relational, verbal, and cyberbullying forms. Equally important is understanding views of social bullying (e.g., spreading rumors) given the frequency at which youth experience these…

Bullying victimization is a pervasive problem nationwide and is related to students' psychological distress, including increased loneliness, anxiety, depression, helplessness, and suicidal behaviors. Importantly, not all students respond to peer victimization in the same way. This study examined the effectiveness of students' coping strategies in…

While considerable research exists on bullying in P-12 schools, few empirical studies address bullying and gifted students. Moreover, the field of Gifted, Talented, and Creative Education lacks single construct studies on covert aggression and gifted students. Also known as "relational aggression," covert aggression purposefully…

This study examined the similarities and differences between three distinct Chinese societies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China) regarding the contribution of gender and grade level to school violence, the ranking orders of perpetration and victimization behavior, and the correlates of school nonattendance due to violence. A cross-national random…

Bullying prevention in schools has arguably met with limited success in the United States. Diversity negatively impacts the success of bullying prevention programs. Furthermore, researchers do not agree upon intervention timing and appropriate grade-level to implement bullying prevention and social-emotional learning and skill-building programs.…

In recent years, there has been a growing social, educational, and public policy focus on investigating the correlates associated with youth carrying weapons in their communities and schools. Victimization and other correlates such as drug use and violent risk behaviors among youth have been linked to deviant behavior including weapon carrying.…

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 intentional assessment and management of school climate is an essential component of a comprehensive school safety plan. The value of this preventive aspect of school safety is often diminished as schools invest resources in physical security measures as a narrowly focused effort to increase school safety (Addington, 2009). This dissertation…