Background: Bullying victimization is a risk factor for social anxiety and disrupted classroom concentration among young people. Self-esteem has been implicated as a protective factor, but extant literature is sparse. Aims: Aim of present study was to test if a new measure of authentic self-esteem can buffer the negative effects of bullying…

Antibullying interventions have been implemented in schools in an attempt to reduce bullying. However, school-based bullying is still prevalent in many schools across the United Kingdom. Therefore, antibullying interventions should aim to prevent bullying and also reduce the effects of bullying by educating victims about resilience against…

Research has shown that victims of bullying fare less well on measures of peer affiliation than nonvictims, but less is known about the direction of effects and the mechanisms involved. Three linked studies addressed the latter two issues using an experimental paradigm with hypothetical vignettes (N = 360). In Experiment 1, among both boys and…

Despite three decades of research and development of anti-bullying intervention, this form of systematic aggression continues to be common in schools. The present study investigated if a contributing factor might be that some pupils are unreceptive to teachers' anti-bullying lessons. It invited 8-11-year-old junior school pupils (N = 227) to…

Prior studies indicate that teachers differ in how they respond to different kinds of traditional bullying, and that their beliefs predict their intervention intentions. The current study provided the first extension of this work into the realm of cyber bullying. Preservice teachers in the United Kingdom ("N" = 222) were presented with…

Despite possible negative effects, many children do not tell their teachers when they have been bullied. This study examined junior school pupils' ("N" = 294) reports of instrumental, emotional and validation social support received after disclosing being bullied to teachers, and associations with intentions to disclose in the future.…

Background: Studies have shown that peer victimization is associated with psychological maladjustment, and have implicated such maladjustment in disrupted ability to concentrate. Aims: To investigate the levels of, and associations between, physical, verbal, and social exclusion victimization, fear of future victimization, and disrupted classroom…

This study tested transactional models to explain the short-term longitudinal links between self-perceptions and involvement in bullying and victimization among 115 9- to 10-year-old children. Self-perceptions were measured with Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children (six sub-scales) and bullying/victimization by means of peer nominations.…

This study examined three main issues among 364 primary school children: (1) self-reported levels of perceived safety in classroom and playground, and relationship with teacher, (2) associations between perceived safety in the two contexts and peer reported levels of being bullied, and (3) if relationship with teacher moderated the associations…

Background: Prior studies outside of the UK have shown that peer victimization is negatively associated with school adjustment. Aims: To examine concurrent and short-term longitudinal associations between peer victimization (physical, malicious teasing, deliberate social exclusion, and malicious gossiping) and two measures of school adjustment…

Users of pupil peer counselling for bullying services (n=50) rated their most helpful and their least helpful experiences of these services on five counselling process variables. The aim was to identify which, if any, of these variables differentiated between the two types of experience. Participants gave significantly higher ratings to "core…

Interviews a sample of 8- to 10-year-old children and asks them to say which classmates bully other pupils and who they selected as victims. Shows that boys tend to bully other boys more than girls and that girls do not tend to differentiate their victims by gender. (DSK)

Background: A small number of prior studies have found that victims of school bullying tend to exhibit poor social skills. Few of these have examined this issue from multiple perspectives, and there has been a focus on a restricted range of social skills. Aims: To determine the extent to which self, peers, and teachers regard victims as having…

Study examined the associations between peer reports of victimization and self-reported friendship among early adolescents. Study was conducted to test the "friendship protection hypothesis" stating friendship provides protection against victimization. Three sets of findings were consistent with the hypothesis. Implications of these…

Examined concurrent and longitudinal links between observational measures of 8- to 9-year olds' playground behaviors/peer contacts (alone, conversation, group size, and network) and three sociometric measures of peer relationships (social preference, bully, and victim). Found significant concurrent and predictive relationships, with relationships…