Christina Salmivalli
Biographic Data
| ID | 90474 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christina Salmivalli |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christina |
| FAMILY NAME | Salmivalli |
| SIGNATURE | SALMIVALLI C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Turku |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6253-146X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 90 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 755 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 90 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
When early childhood teachers read books about bullying to preschool aged children; Are the bystanders discussed
The reasons why most young children do not typically engage in defending behavior when they witness their peers being victimized are unclear. However, early socialization practices, such as how teachers read books depicting bullying incidents may be a contributing factor. This study involved structured video-recorded observations of 76 early childhood teachers (70 female) from 42 centers, reading two adapted books about bullying to small groups o…
Choosing friends based on similarity or popularity? Friendship preferences of children exhibiting bullying and defending in late childhood
This study examined whether children with high levels of bullying or defending rather choose similar or popular peers as friends in late childhood. We expected that friendship preferences of children were based on similarity in bullying and defending behaviors. Moreover, we assumed that children’s bullying behavior was associated with the tendency to seek out popular peers as friends. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed data from third- ( M age…
Advancing the Science and Practice of School Psychology Internationally: Transnational Leadership Cultivating Diversity, Equity, Innovation, Inclusion, and Global Impact
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of Psychology in the Schools ( PITS ), the second‐longest‐running journal in the field of school psychology. Since its founding in 1964, PITS has served as a central outlet for research and practice focused on the intersection of psychology and education, with an emphasis on advancing the practice of school psychology. The paper highlights the enduring legacy of PITS in advancing school psychology prac…
What's on your mind? The role of bystander behaviors in victims' cognitions about the cause of the bullying and its solution
It is commonly assumed that victims' maladaptive cognitions concerning the cause of their victimization (self-blame) or its potential solution (e.g., helplessness) contribute to psychological problems. Nevertheless, there is limited empirical research on the conditions that lead to the emergence of such cognitions. The present study investigates whether bystanders' behaviors during bullying incidents (bystanders joining the bullying or defending …
Trajectories of Bystander Behaviors in Bullying during Secondary Education: The Role of Moral Disengagement and Conformity To Peer Pressure
Bystanders shape bullying dynamics, yet little is known about how their behaviors change over time and related socio-moral factors. This study adopted a person-centered longitudinal approach to examine joint trajectories of bystander behaviors and their co-evolution with moral disengagement and conformity to peer pressure. A sample of 994 Spanish adolescents (48% girls; Mage T1 = 12.5, SD = 0.6) was surveyed across three waves. Parallel-process L…
Is Social Mindfulness an Antidote to Early Adolescents' Aggressive Behavior in Daily School Life? The Moderating Role of Classroom Interpersonal Climate
OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to elucidate how fluctuations in social mindfulness were related to early adolescents' proactive and reactive aggressive behavior on a day-to-day basis. Daily (within-person) fluctuations and average between-person differences in classroom interpersonal climate were further examined as potential moderators of the aforementioned daily association, respectively. METHOD: = 10.40 years, SD = 0.94; 55.97% boys) compl…
Admitting to bullying others or denying it: Differences in children’s psychosocial adjustment and implications for intervention
This study examined whether, for bullying perpetrators, admitting to their behavior was associated with specific psychosocial characteristics, and whether it predicted decreases in bullying behavior and a higher responsiveness to a successful anti-bullying program after 9 months of implementation. It also investigated whether participation in an anti-bullying program deterred admitting to the behavior. At pretest, our sample included 5,908 childr…
Does the classroom context moderate the effects of internalizing problems and peer status on peer victimization? Testing a vulnerability-by-context model
This two-wave study investigated whether the concurrent and prospective effects of internalizing symptoms and peer status (being liked/disliked) on peer-reported and self-reported victimization were moderated by the classroom prevalence of internalizing symptoms and peer status, respectively, and by classroom size. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted with data collected from 2,641 Finnish secondary school students ( M age = 13.71; 48.8%…
Can changing schools help peer-victimized students escape their plight? A mixed-methods study
Changing schools tends to be more frequent among victimized students and is sometimes used as a means to put an end to persistent bullying. However, whether these changes benefit victimized students remains unclear, as bullying victimization often persists across different contexts. This mixed-methods study ( n = 58,799 and n = 68 for quantitative and qualitative data, respectively) conducted in Finland examines the role of victimization history …
A healthy context, a just context? The role of classroom-level victimization in the adverse effects of bullying victimization on students' belief in a just world
The phenomenon that victims of bullying experience greater psychological problems in environments with lower levels of victimization is known as the healthy context paradox. The current study investigated the healthy context paradox with respect to students' belief in a just world. Specifically, we examined prospective effects of bullying victimization on personal and general belief in a just world, while taking the classroom level of victimizati…
Young Adults' Social Relationships Affect Their Likelihood of Ruminating About Past School‐Age Victimization
Rumination about past victimization as an adult underlies the link between school‐age victimization and mental health difficulties in young adulthood. Yet, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the risk factors for adults to ruminate on their past victimization experiences. The current study fills this gap by examining whether current social relationships (e.g., workplace victimization, loneliness, romantic relationship satisfaction) of young ad…
Longitudinal Relationships Between Empathy and Bullying Among Boys and Girls: A Random Intercept Cross‐Lagged Panel Model Study
For decades, empathy has been hypothesized as a protective factor against bullying. However, this hypothesis is mainly supported by cross‐sectional studies, while longitudinal research on bullying and empathy is still scarce. The present study aimed to fill this gap by conducting random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel models of the relations between cognitive and affective empathy and bullying behaviors across three‐time points each separated by 5 m…
Do Targeted Interventions Diminish Victimization? Testing the Short- and Longer-term Effectiveness of Condemning, Empathy-Raising, and Combined Approaches
Given the detrimental effects of school bullying, it is essential that teachers are provided with effective guidelines on how to implement targeted interventions if a case of bullying comes to their attention. Yet to date, most research has focused on how bullying can be prevented, rather than how it should be intervened upon. To address this gap, the current study compared the short- and longer-term development of victimization of students whose…
Do Adolescents Adopt the Prosocial Behaviors of the Classmates They Like? A Social Network Analysis on Prosocial Contagion
While the influence of high-status peers on maladaptive behaviors is well-documented, socialization processes of prosocial behavior through high-status peers remain understudied. This study examined whether adolescents’ prosocial behavior was influenced by the prosocial behavior of the peers they liked and whether this effect was stronger when the peers they liked were also well-liked by their classmates. Three waves of data, six months apart, we…
Defending Behavior and Victimization: Between- and Within-Person Associations
Anti-bullying interventions often encourage peer bystanders to defend their victimized peers. However, concerns have been raised that defending could put youth at risk for being victimized themselves. Despite these concerns, there is limited research on the longitudinal links between defending and victimization. Addressing limitations of previous research, the current study examined bidirectional associations between three types of peer-reported …
Equitable shifts in youth resilience? Distinguishing normative changes and pandemic effects on academic self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal
This preregistered longitudinal study examined the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal in early adolescence. It followed and compared two cohorts over 4 years: one prepandemic (11-14 years, 2016-2019) and one during the pandemic (2019-2022). The study analyzed annual well-being surveys merged with school enrolment data from South Australian public schools ( N = 28,307, 49% female). Employ…
An Observational Study of Parents Reading a Storybook About Bullying to Their Young Child: Are Bystander Responses Discussed
In the context of bullying the developmental progression of how and why most children remain as passive bystanders is unclear. Early socialization practices such as how parents read storybooks that depict bullying to their young children may be a contributing factor. Structured video‐recorded observations of 97 parent–child dyads (85 mothers) (M age of children = 37.9 m) were conducted in participants’ own homes. Participants were instructed to r…
Heterogeneity of adolescent bullying perpetrators: Subtypes based on victimization and peer status
We identified different types of adolescent bullying perpetrators and nonbullies based on peer-reported bullying, victimization, and peer status (popularity, likeability, and rejection) and examined differences between bully subtypes in typical forms of bullying perpetrated. Moreover, we studied how bully subtypes differed from nonbullies with varying levels of victimization and peer status in academic and psychosocial adjustment. The study utili…
The longitudinal role of classroom defending norms in victims’ psychological adjustment, causal attributions, and social comparisons
Frequent exposure to victimization by peers is related to greater psychological problems. It is often assumed that peer victimization is associated with fewer psychological problems in classrooms where defending victims of bullying is common (i.e., a norm). The few studies testing this claim have been cross-sectional and have produced mixed findings. The current preregistered study examined whether the prospective link between victimization and p…
Feeling better now? Being defended diminishes daily mood problems and self‐blame in victims of bullying
BACKGROUND: School bullying is a group phenomenon in which being defended by peer bystanders may buffer against the development of psychological problems in victims. AIMS: This registered report examines whether being defended diminished victims' daily mood problems and self-blame, both from a within- and between-person perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Daily diary data were collected from n = 1669 Finnish 7th-9th grade students (M age = 14.45;…
Effects of the KiVa anti-bullying program on defending behavior: Investigating individual-level mechanisms of change
Given that defending victimized peers might help discourage bullying behavior and prevent its harmful consequences, various anti-bullying programs have attempted to increase defending behavior among participating children. However, the cognitions that underlie the effectiveness of interventions in increasing defending remain unknown. Data for this randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the KiVa anti-bullying program were collected in Finnish primar…
The dynamic associations between social dominance goals and bullying from middle to late childhood: The moderating role of classroom bystander behaviors
Does defending victimized peers put youth at risk of being victimized
Defending peers who have been bullied is often thought to put defenders at risk of becoming victimized themselves. The study investigated the concurrent and prospective associations between defending and (peer- and self-reported) victimization, and examined popularity and classroom norms as potential moderators. Participants included 4085 Finnish youth (43.9% boys; M age = 14.56, SD = .75; 97% born in Finland). Concurrently, defending was positiv…
Does defending affect adolescents' peer status, or vice versa? Testing the moderating effects of empathy, gender, and anti‐bullying norms
This study examined bidirectional associations between students' bully-directed defending behavior and their peer status (being liked or popular) and tested for the moderating role of empathy, gender, and classroom anti-bullying norms. Three waves of data were collected at 4-5-month time intervals among 3680 Finnish adolescents (M age = 13.94, 53.0% girls). Cross-lagged panel analyses showed that defending positively predicted popularity and, to …
Adolescent victimization predicts adult depression and aggression: The role of rumination
Victimization during school years can have detrimental effects on individuals' adjustment, lasting even into adulthood. In the current study, we examine whether there is an indirect effect of victimization on adult depression and aggression, via sad and angry rumination about past victimization. Participants included 1,319 Finnish individuals (59.5% identified as women; 97.4 native Finns) who were followed from adolescence into adulthood ( M age …
An Interpersonal Circumplex Model of Children's Social Goals: Links With Peer-Reported Behavior and Sociometric Status
The objective of the present research was to develop an assessment model for children's social goals. The aims were (a) to fit children's social goals to a circumplex model and to examine links between goals and peer-reported social behaviors (aggression, withdrawal, and prosocial behavior) in a sample of 276 participants (134 girls, 11- to 12-year-olds) and (b) to replicate these findings and examine whether social behavior mediates the relation…
Univariate and multivariate models of positive and negative networks: Liking, disliking, and bully–victim relationships
Empirical test of bullies' status goals: Assessing direct goals, aggression, and prestige
The literature suggests that status goals are one of the driving motivations behind bullying behavior, yet this conjecture has rarely if ever been examined empirically. This study assessed status goals in three ways, using dyadic network analysis to analyze the relations and goals among 10–11 and 14–15 year olds in 22 school classes ( N boys=225; N girls=277). As a validation bullies were contrasted with victims. Bullies had direct status goals (…
Unique and Interactive Effects of Empathy and Social Status on Involvement in Bullying
This study investigated the relationships between affective and cognitive empathy, social preference and perceived popularity, and involvement in bullying situations by bullying others or defending the victimized children. The participants were 266 primary and 195 secondary school students. Affective and cognitive empathy, as well as the status variables, had some significant main effects on involvement in bullying. In addition, several interacti…
Proactive and reactive aggression among school bullies, victims, and bully‐victims
Bullies, victims, bully‐victims, and control children were identified from a sample of 1062 children (530 girls and 532 boys), aged 10 to 12 years, participating in the study. Their reactive and proactive aggression was measured by means of peer and teacher reports. Peer and teacher reports were more concordant with respect to reactive than proactive aggression. Comparing the children in different bullying roles in terms of their reactive and pro…
Participant Roles in Bullying: How Can Peer Bystanders Be Utilized in Interventions
This article provides a view of school bullying as a group phenomenon and practical implications stemming from this approach. The motivation for bullying perpetration often relates to one's social standing in the group. Peer bystanders are typically present when bullying takes place, often providing the perpetrators with social rewards. The more such rewards (e.g., laughing, cheering) are present and the less the victimized children are supported…
"I'm OK but You're Not" and Other Peer-Relational Schemas: Explaining Individual Differences in Children's Social Goals
This study examined the links among 5th and 6th graders' (279 girls and 310 boys) self- and peer perceptions, social goals, and social behavior. Social goals mediated the effects of self- and peer perceptions on 3 types of behavior: proactive aggression, prosocial behavior, and withdrawal. In addition to their main effects (self-perception predicting variance in agentic goals, peer perception being related to communal goals), self- and peer perce…
"She is not actually bullied." the discourse of harassment in student groups
Bullying is a considerable problem in schools. It has various negative effects on the children involved. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how children themselves interpret and construct bullying. Three elementary school classes with a high number of victim nominations were chosen among the 48 classes taking part in a larger study. The pupils from selected classes were interviewed in small groups. The interviews were tape-recor…
Intrapersonal and interpersonal risk factors for peer victimization in immigrant youth in Finland
This study (a) compared native Finns and immigrant children with respect to different forms of peer victimization and (b) tested whether intrapersonal (e.g., depression) and interpersonal (e.g., peer rejection) sample was drawn from the first phase of a large intervention evaluation project, KiVa, in Finland, composed of 4,957 native Finns (51% girls), 146 first-generation immigrants (48% girls), and 310 second-generation immigrants (53% girls) 9…
Female aggression” revisited: Variable‐ and person‐centered approaches to studying gender differences in different types of aggression
We looked for evidence supporting the hypothesis that girls are more indirectly aggressive than boys by 1) comparing the average scores of girls and boys on the Direct Indirect Aggression Scales [Björkqvist et al., 1992b], and 2) by comparing the distributions of boys and girls in five cluster groups representing different ‘aggression profiles’, or combinations of values in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression. The subjects were 526 children…
The Longitudinal Interplay between Bullying, Victimization, and Social Status: Age‐related and Gender Differences
The current study examined the longitudinal interplay between bullying, victimization, and social status (acceptance, rejection, and perceived popularity) over the course of 1 year. Cross‐lagged path models were estimated for two cohorts, covering grades 3–6 (N = 3904, M age = 11.2 years) and grades 7–9 (N = 4492, M age = 14.4 years). Comparisons between cohorts and by gender were conducted. The results of this study corroborate the complexity of…
Early Adolescents’ Participation in Bullying: Is ToM Involved
The present study investigated the role of theory of mind (ToM) skills in three forms of involvement in bullying: ringleader bullying, defending the victim(s), and victimization. Individual (affective empathy) and interpersonal variables (social preference and perceived popularity) were assumed to moderate the associations between ToM and the ways of being involved in bullying. Moderation effects by gender were also explored. Participants were 21…
Classroom norms of bullying alter the degree to which children defend in response to their affective empathy and power
This study examined whether the degree to which bullying is normative in the classroom would moderate associations between intra- (cognitive and affective empathy, self-efficacy beliefs) and interpersonal (popularity) factors and defending behavior. Participants were 6,708 third- to fifth-grade children (49% boys; Mage = 11 years) from 383 classrooms. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that children were more likely to defend in response to th…
Hostile attributions and behavioral strategies in children: Does relationship type matter
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that children's hostile attributions and behavioral strategies in response to peer provocation and rebuff situations will depend on the relationship with the target peer (i.e., friend, enemy, neutral). The sample consisted of 144 fourth graders (75 boys and 69 girls; mean age=10.47 years, SD=0.55 years). The participants were randomly selected from a pool of 442 children who completed a measure…
Inequality Matters: Classroom Status Hierarchy and Adolescents’ Bullying
The Dynamics of Friendships and Victimization in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Social Network Perspective
This study investigated the development of relational and physical victimization in adolescent friendship networks over time. Using longitudinal social network analysis (SIENA) it was simultaneously tested whether similarity in victimization contributed to friendship formation (selection effects) and whether victimization of friends contributed to changes in victimization (influence effects). This was done for peer-reported relational and physica…
Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome
Background. The participant role approach represents a view of bullying as a group process in which bystanders often encourage the bullying or silently witness it, while little support is given to the victim (e.g. Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Björkqvist, Österman, & Kaukiainen, 1996). There is a discrepancy between students' attitudes (which are often against bullying) and their actual behaviour in bullying situations, and this may be an important fac…
A content analysis of bizarre elements in dreams
Bidirectional Associations of Prosocial Behavior with Peer Acceptance and Rejection in Adolescence
As most studies on the link between peer status and prosocial behavior are cross-sectional, conducted with children, and operationalize status as the difference between acceptance and rejection, it remains unclear whether peer acceptance and rejection are consequences or prerequisites of prosocial behavior in adolescence. To fill this gap, this study examines the bidirectional associations of prosocial behavior with peer acceptance and peer rejec…
Classroom Status Hierarchy Moderates the Association between Social Dominance Goals and Bullying Behavior in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence
Intelligent, Attractive, Well-Behaving, Unhappy: The Structure of Adolescents' Self-Concept and Its Relations to Their Social Behavior
The self-concept (SC) structures of adolescent girls and boys were examined and related to their social behavior in situations of bullying. The participants were 281 eighth-grade adolescents, aged 14 to 15 years, from 15 school classes. The measures used were the Participant Role Questionnaire and an applied version of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. A cluster analysis was performed to form groups with similar SC profiles. The ult…
Beyond the reactive‐proactive dichotomy: Rage, revenge, reward, and recreational aggression predict early high school bully and bully/victim status
The role of reactive and proactive aggression in school bullying perpetration remains unclear. In this study, we explore the predictive value of an expanded model of aggression motives based on the Quadripartite Violence Typology (QVT), which distinguishes between motivational valence (appetitive or aversive) and recruitment of deliberative self-control to derive four classes of motives: Rage, Revenge, Reward, and Recreation. With a sample of 1,8…
Reactive, but not proactive aggression predicts victimization among boys
Prospective links among reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and victimization by peers were investigated in a longitudinal sample of 238 preadolescents (aged 10–13 years, 52% girls). No predictive links were found between victimization and either type of aggression among girls. Among boys, reactive aggression predicted higher future levels of victimization but was not itself affected by prior victimization. In contrast, boys' proactive agg…
Does defending affect adolescents' peer status, or vice versa? Testing the moderating effects of empathy, gender, and anti‐bullying norms
This study examined bidirectional associations between students' bully-directed defending behavior and their peer status (being liked or popular) and tested for the moderating role of empathy, gender, and classroom anti-bullying norms. Three waves of data were collected at 4-5-month time intervals among 3680 Finnish adolescents (M age = 13.94, 53.0% girls). Cross-lagged panel analyses showed that defending positively predicted popularity and, to …
Overt and covert aggression in work settings in relation to the subjective well‐being of employees
Aggressive behavior was studied in workplaces having (1) predominantly male, (2) predominantly female, or (3) both male and female employees in equal or near equal frequencies. In addition to examining the occurrence of different types of aggression in these workplaces, the question of whether being a target of aggression is related to employees’ subjective well‐being was addressed. One hundred sixty‐nine participants (mainly 30–50 years of age) …
A content analysis of bizarre elements in dreams
How do the victims respond to bullying
Reactions to harassment of victims of bullying were studied. One issue was, what kind of behavior on the part of the victim is likely to a) make the others start or continue bullying or b) diminish bullying or put an end to it. Altogether 573 pupils (286 girls, 287 boys) from 11 Finnish schools served as subjects: 67 of them (33 girls, 34 boys) were identified as victims of bullying. Both peer- and self-evaluations were used as methods of the stu…
Peer networks and bullying in schools
This study looked at how the social constellations in school classes relate to bullying problems. Using peer‐evaluation questionnaires, the peer networks of children with different participant roles (such as victim, bully, assistant of bully, reinforcer of bully, defender of victim, outsider) were explored. The subjects were 459 sixth‐grade‐children (218 girls, 241 boys), aged 11 to 12 years, in Finland. The main findings were: 1) Children who te…
Intelligent, Attractive, Well-Behaving, Unhappy: The Structure of Adolescents' Self-Concept and Its Relations to Their Social Behavior
The self-concept (SC) structures of adolescent girls and boys were examined and related to their social behavior in situations of bullying. The participants were 281 eighth-grade adolescents, aged 14 to 15 years, from 15 school classes. The measures used were the Participant Role Questionnaire and an applied version of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. A cluster analysis was performed to form groups with similar SC profiles. The ult…
Stability and change of behavior in connection with bullying in schools: A two-year follow-up
The stability of participant roles in the bullying process was explored during a 2-year period among 189 eighth-grade students in 17 school classes in Finland. This was a subsample of students taking part in an earlier study [Salmivalli et al., 1996a]. In addition to studying stability per se, the impact of social environment on adolescents' behavior was explored. This was done, first, by comparing a group of adolescents who had moved to a new cl…
Bullying as a group process: Participant roles and their relations to social status within the group
Bullying was investigated as a group process, a social phenomenon taking place in a school setting among 573 Finnish sixth-grade children (286 girls, 287 boys) aged 12–13 years. Different Participant Roles taken by individual children in the bullying process were examined and related to a) self-estimated behavior in bullying situations, b) social acceptance and social rejection, and c) belongingness to one of the five sociometric status groups (p…
Participant role approach to school bullying: Implications for interventions
Self-Evaluated Self-Esteem, Peer-Evaluated Self-Esteem, and Defensive Egotism as Predictors of Adolescents’ Participation in Bullying Situations
Three dimensions of self-esteem (SE) (self-evaluated, peer-evaluated, defensive egotism) were related to each other and to adolescents’ social behavior. In addition to exploring links between single variables, five SE profiles were formed by means of a cluster analysis and connected to adolescents’ behavior in situations of bullying. Self-and peer-evaluated SEs were significantly correlated, whereas defensive egotism was not connected to either s…
The relationships between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggression
Relationships between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggressive behavior were studied. Peer-estimation techniques were used to measure all major variables. Altogether, 526 Finnish schoolchildren from three age groups (10, 12, and 14 years old) participated in the study. As was hypothesized, indirect aggression correlated positively and significantly with social intelligence in every age group studied. Physical and verbal forms o…
Overt and covert aggression in work settings in relation to the subjective well‐being of employees
Aggressive behavior was studied in workplaces having (1) predominantly male, (2) predominantly female, or (3) both male and female employees in equal or near equal frequencies. In addition to examining the occurrence of different types of aggression in these workplaces, the question of whether being a target of aggression is related to employees’ subjective well-being was addressed. One hundred sixty-nine participants (mainly 30–50 years of age) …
Overt and covert aggression in work settings in relation to the subjective well‐being of employees
Aggressive behavior was studied in workplaces having (1) predominantly male, (2) predominantly female, or (3) both male and female employees in equal or near equal frequencies. In addition to examining the occurrence of different types of aggression in these workplaces, the question of whether being a target of aggression is related to employees’ subjective well‐being was addressed. One hundred sixty‐nine participants (mainly 30–50 years of age) …
Proactive and reactive aggression among school bullies, victims, and bully-victims
Bullies, victims, bully-victims, and control children were identified from a sample of 1062 children (530 girls and 532 boys), aged 10 to 12 years, participating in the study. Their reactive and proactive aggression was measured by means of peer and teacher reports. Peer and teacher reports were more concordant with respect to reactive than proactive aggression. Comparing the children in different bullying roles in terms of their reactive and pro…
Proactive and reactive aggression among school bullies, victims, and bully‐victims
Bullies, victims, bully‐victims, and control children were identified from a sample of 1062 children (530 girls and 532 boys), aged 10 to 12 years, participating in the study. Their reactive and proactive aggression was measured by means of peer and teacher reports. Peer and teacher reports were more concordant with respect to reactive than proactive aggression. Comparing the children in different bullying roles in terms of their reactive and pro…
"She is not actually bullied." the discourse of harassment in student groups
Bullying is a considerable problem in schools. It has various negative effects on the children involved. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how children themselves interpret and construct bullying. Three elementary school classes with a high number of victim nominations were chosen among the 48 classes taking part in a larger study. The pupils from selected classes were interviewed in small groups. The interviews were tape-recor…
Connections between attitudes, group norms, and behaviour in bullying situations
We examined the connections between attitudes, group norms, and students’ behaviour in bullying situations (bullying others, assisting the bully, reinforcing the bully, defending the victim, or staying outside bullying situations). The participants were 1220 elementary school children (600 girls and 620 boys) from 48 school classes from Grades four, five, and six, i.e., 9–10, 10–11, and 11–12 years of age. Whereas attitudes did predict behaviour …
Female aggression” revisited: Variable‐ and person‐centered approaches to studying gender differences in different types of aggression
We looked for evidence supporting the hypothesis that girls are more indirectly aggressive than boys by 1) comparing the average scores of girls and boys on the Direct Indirect Aggression Scales [Björkqvist et al., 1992b], and 2) by comparing the distributions of boys and girls in five cluster groups representing different ‘aggression profiles’, or combinations of values in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression. The subjects were 526 children…
Prospective Relations Among Victimization, Rejection, Friendlessness, and Children's Self- and Peer-Perceptions
This study investigated the prospective links between three forms of peer adversities (i.e., victimization, rejection, and lack of reciprocated friendships) and children's perceptions of themselves and of their peers. The sample consisted of 212 children (107 boys and 105 girls, 11–13 years) recruited from four primary schools and followed up for a period of one year. The results showed that a negative self-perception was a risk factor for the de…
An Interpersonal Circumplex Model of Children's Social Goals: Links With Peer-Reported Behavior and Sociometric Status
The objective of the present research was to develop an assessment model for children's social goals. The aims were (a) to fit children's social goals to a circumplex model and to examine links between goals and peer-reported social behaviors (aggression, withdrawal, and prosocial behavior) in a sample of 276 participants (134 girls, 11- to 12-year-olds) and (b) to replicate these findings and examine whether social behavior mediates the relation…
"I'm OK but You're Not" and Other Peer-Relational Schemas: Explaining Individual Differences in Children's Social Goals
This study examined the links among 5th and 6th graders' (279 girls and 310 boys) self- and peer perceptions, social goals, and social behavior. Social goals mediated the effects of self- and peer perceptions on 3 types of behavior: proactive aggression, prosocial behavior, and withdrawal. In addition to their main effects (self-perception predicting variance in agentic goals, peer perception being related to communal goals), self- and peer perce…
Anti-bullying intervention: Implementation and outcome
Background. The participant role approach represents a view of bullying as a group process in which bystanders often encourage the bullying or silently witness it, while little support is given to the victim (e.g. Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Björkqvist, Österman, & Kaukiainen, 1996). There is a discrepancy between students' attitudes (which are often against bullying) and their actual behaviour in bullying situations, and this may be an important fac…
Reactive, but not proactive aggression predicts victimization among boys
Prospective links among reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and victimization by peers were investigated in a longitudinal sample of 238 preadolescents (aged 10–13 years, 52% girls). No predictive links were found between victimization and either type of aggression among girls. Among boys, reactive aggression predicted higher future levels of victimization but was not itself affected by prior victimization. In contrast, boys' proactive agg…
Hostile attributions and behavioral strategies in children: Does relationship type matter
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that children's hostile attributions and behavioral strategies in response to peer provocation and rebuff situations will depend on the relationship with the target peer (i.e., friend, enemy, neutral). The sample consisted of 144 fourth graders (75 boys and 69 girls; mean age=10.47 years, SD=0.55 years). The participants were randomly selected from a pool of 442 children who completed a measure…
Long-term Consequences of Victimization by Peers: A Follow-up from Adolescence to Young Adulthood
Long-term effects of victimization were investigated in 177 girls and boys that were followed from adolescence (ages 14-15) to young adulthood (ages 22-23). Victimization in adolescence was associated with increases in depression and decreases in self-esteem as well as negative views of others in young adulthood, but only when adolescents lacked a supportive family environment. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms responsible for…
Unique and Interactive Effects of Empathy and Social Status on Involvement in Bullying
This study investigated the relationships between affective and cognitive empathy, social preference and perceived popularity, and involvement in bullying situations by bullying others or defending the victimized children. The participants were 266 primary and 195 secondary school students. Affective and cognitive empathy, as well as the status variables, had some significant main effects on involvement in bullying. In addition, several interacti…
Pre‐adolescents’ Peer‐relational Schemas and Social Goals across Relational Contexts
Current theorists stress the context‐specificity of social behaviors and social cognitions. Although researchers have started to investigate the relationship as one context that might influence social cognitions, relatively little is known about the influence of relational context on the social goals endorsed by children and adolescents. The current study tested the hypothesis that pre‐adolescents’ goals would vary between individuals as well as …
Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression (84 works) · Psychology (84 works) · Developmental psychology (79 works) · Social Psychology (71 works) · Poison control (51 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (45 works) · Social Psychology (42 works) · Human Factors and Ergonomics (38 works) · Medicine (38 works) · Suicide prevention (32 works)