We analyzed developmental changes in outsider behavior, testing whether the likelihood that it turns into bullying or defending over time depends on the individual proneness to feel shame or guilt. Participants were 155 preadolescents (72 boys and 83 girls; [X-bar][subscript age] at T1 = 10.74 years). Bullying, defending, and outsider behaviors…

This study investigated the associations among peer status, friendship jealousy, and relational aggression in early adolescence, with a focus on peer status as a moderator of the association between relational aggression and friendship jealousy. Three hundred eighteen sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students completed a sociometric assessment…

We hypothesized that in adolescence, maladaptive narcissism interacts with low self-esteem to predict a preoccupied attachment style ("attachment for self-affirmation hypothesis"), and with high self-esteem to predict an avoidant attachment style ("attachment for self-enhancement hypothesis"). We expected gender differences in…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with health-risk behaviors in general samples of adults and adolescents. The current study examined the association between ACEs and these behaviors among a high-risk sample of early adolescents. Five hundred fifteen 9- to 11-year-old children placed in foster care due to maltreatment were…

In adolescence, the complexity of human ontogenesis embraces biological growth and maturation as well as mental, affective, and cognitive progress, and adaptation to the requirements of society. To accept our morphological constellation as part of our gender may prove a problem even to a child of average rate of maturation. The main purposes of…

We tested the hypothesis that early adolescents' (N = 951) knowledge of who bullies whom is differentially distributed across peers. Knowledge of bullying was assessed by asking middle school students to nominate grademates who bullied or were bullied using physical or relational means. We hypothesized that peers who were closer to bullies and…

Sexually objectifying messages about girls and women are common in U.S. popular culture. As a consequence of exposure to such messages, girls may develop "internalized sexualization," or internalization of the belief that sexual attractiveness to males is an important aspect of their identity. We hypothesized that internalized…

Item response theory (IRT) models are the main psychometric approach for the development, evaluation, and refinement of multi-item instruments and scaling of latent traits, whereas multilevel models are the primary statistical method when considering the dependence between person responses when primary units (e.g., students) are nested within…

Peer victimization is a widespread phenomenon especially prevalent in early adolescence. This study investigates the prevalence of peer victimization and its association with mental health problems and impact on everyday life, and the possible mediating effect of parental and peer support. Data are based on a cross-sectional health survey (N =…

This study examined how child and parent reports of parenting were related to early adolescent substance use and school suspensions. Data were from two time points 6 months apart on 321 families with an eighth-grade student attending one of five schools in the Pacific Northwest. Child- and parent-report measures of family management practices were…

The study examined associations among adolescents' perceived mother-child and father-child relationship quality (intimacy, conflict, and admiration), perceived peer acceptance, and their values (individualism and collectivism) in a sample of 795 Estonian, German, and Russian 15-year-olds. Adolescents from the three cultural contexts differed in…

Most previous studies on the association between bullying and body weight were performed using North American or White samples from Western countries. The present study is the first empirical endeavor to examine whether such an association exists in a sample of adolescents from East Asia. Specifically, the authors examined the associations between…

The present study examined the effects of teacher attunement to victimization on student perceptions of the bullying culture of their schools as a means of fostering a sense of belonging among early adolescents. Participants (n = 1,264) in sixth grade reported on the frequency that they had been bullied, and teachers were asked to report students…

This study addressed the moderating role of classroom descriptive norms for overt and relational aggression, social withdrawal, prosocial behavior, and academic reputation in the association of behavior with social preference and popularity in early adolescence. Participants were 1,492 fifth-grade students ([x-bar][subscript age] = 10.6 years,…

This study investigated the significance of classroom-level norm salience, calculated as the within-classroom correlation between a behavior and peer-nominated popularity, by examining the extent to which norm salience moderated the relation of individual classroom behaviors (academic achievement, prosocial behavior, and bullying) with peer…