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…

There is limited research examining peer victimization (PV) experiences in early childhood, particularly during the transition from preschool to kindergarten. Given the gaps in the PV literature among this young population and the need for earlier PV prevention and intervention efforts, the current study advances the literature by examining: (1)…

Student victimization by school staff members has important potential consequences for students' academic achievement and physical and psychological outcomes. Several studies have shown that such victimization exists in multiple contexts and there is considerable variation in prevalence among contexts. This study examined the prevalence of student…

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,…

Bullying in school has become a public health problem. Among the various bullying's risk factors, the vulnerabilities associated with socio-emotional skills stand out. The present study aims to explore the relationship between bullying, victimization, self-concept, and empathy; to test differences in victimization and bullying between boys and…

We used a large state-wide sample of adolescent students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades (N = 58,689) to examine the predictive value of screen time on bullying victimization, as well as its interaction with age by gender, including transgender and gender nonconforming identities. Participants were majority boys/men (52.3%), heterosexual (88.1%),…

Previous studies have shown that peer victimization causes a great variety of severe adverse effects on children's development, and it is necessary to explore the influential factors and mechanisms of peer victimization. This study examined the associations between teacher-student relationships and peer victimization, as well as the roles of peer…

Heteronormativity posits the superiority of heterosexuality and heterosexually-based norms over all other forms of sexual or gender expression, and heteronormative beliefs have been shown to affect how individuals view sexuality and gender. The concept of gender transition inherently goes against the ideals of heteronormativity. The current study…

Adolescent behavior now occurs offline and online. Frequently studied and treated independently, the relationship between offline problem behaviors and online risk taking is not well understood. This study asked whether there are any problematic behaviors predictive of online risk taking by high school students. Using a 2009 dataset of 2,077 high…

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between polyvictimization, school social climate, and depression in adolescents. Authors also looked at whether school social climate acts as a moderator of the interaction between polyvictimization and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, to have a deeper analysis, they included--as…

Although teachers are key in bullying intervention, little is known about their responses to bullying and how students perceive them. This study investigated whether experimentally manipulated teacher responses in vignettes (i.e., non-response, comforting victim, correcting bully, both comforting victim and correcting bully) predict differences in…

This study examines whether bullies' gender conformity, pressure to conform to gender norms (felt pressure), and experiences of homophobic name-calling are associated with a tendency to bully gender conforming victims (GCV) and gender non-conforming victims (GNCV). Longitudinal changes were analyzed on all peer interactions in an entire 6th-grade…

This study aims to analyse the relationship between moral disengagement mechanisms, aggression and bullying behaviour in 221 high school students between 11 and 17 years who took the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Questionnaire, The Aggression Questionnaire and the School Bullying Questionnaire. Findings suggest significant positive…

The rise in highly publicized cases of sexual assault, along with offenders in these cases alluding that those alleged victims were being untruthful about their claims, has fostered myths about false reporting of sexual assault, increasing discussions over fears of being falsely accused. This study uses an exploratory approach to identify the…

Background: Depression continues to be a public health crisis for young adults. For high school students, past research has identified trauma as a significant predictor of depression. Congruent with the theory of cumulative stress, the present study hypothesized that the effect of sexual assault on depression would be stronger among lesbian, gay,…