We investigated whether social relationships protect children against the effects of victimization on internalizing problems. We used data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths. Victimization at age 8 years was associated with internalizing problems at age 9 years. Victims who had siblings, warm parents, and a…

Dating violence is a serious form of violence that places students at risk for injury, death, and negative mental health sequelae. The current analysis presents data on the prevalence of dating violence over a 12-year period among a nationally representative sample of high school-attending youth in the United States, stratified by race and gender.…

Despite decades of research analyzing fear of crime among adults, little is known about youth fear of crime in general and youth fear of crime in school, specifically. Moreover, among existing studies most emphasize causes of fear, with little discussion of avoidance or the academic consequences of these feelings and behaviors in school. This…

This study of 1,283 middle-school students examined the effect of an educational video designed to distinguish bullying from ordinary peer conflict. Randomly assigned classrooms of students either watched or did not watch a video prior to completing a self-report bullying survey. Compared to the control group, students who watched the video…

Although researchers have identified individual-level predictors of nonphysical bullying among children and youth, school-level predictors (i.e., characteristics of the school environment that influence bullying exposure) remain largely unstudied. Using data from a survey of 1,838 students in 21 Boston public high schools, we used multilevel…

Although sexual minority (SM) youth are at an increased risk for being bullied and experiencing depression, it is unclear how caregiver support is interrelated with those variables. Therefore, we sought to assess (a) the prevalence of nonphysical bullying, depressive symptomatology, and caregiver support among heterosexual and SM girls, (b) the…

The Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to preventing youth violence. For the past decade, DVP has supported research on risk and protective factors associated with youth interpersonal violence and the development and evaluation of prevention programs. This commentary addresses…

This study investigated a rural sample of boys' and girls' (N = 205) perceptions of what behaviors constitute bullying and examined whether being a victim of aggression was predictive of perpetrating physical and relational aggression. Results indicated that predictors of perpetrating relational aggression included victimization of relational…

The role of family and school-level variables on relational aggression and relational victimization was investigated among 158 fourth- and fifth-grade children. Family cohesion, maternal and paternal responsiveness, and school climate were hypothesized to be significant predictors of relational aggression and relational victimization. The results…

Prior research has shown relations between peer victimization, aggression, and adolescent substance use. However, there is a need for further research in this area, especially among rural populations, as rural youth have high rates of substance use but less access to mental health resources in their communities. The present study examined…

This study examines the relations between student's perceptions of school connectedness and their self-reported rates of victimization (physical, verbal, and relational), as well as perceived reasons for peer victimization (ethnicity, sexuality). Data come from 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students who completed the California Healthy Kids Survey…

Mobile phone aggression (MPA) is a relatively new phenomenon. Using newly developed measures, a pilot study was conducted with 348 adolescents ages 13-17 years to determine the incidence of MPA and victimization in this group of adolescents and to test a proposed model in which hostile response selection mediated the relationship between normative…

This study examined the concurrent validity of the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (BVQ) in a convenience sample of 202 middle school students in central Virginia. This appears to be the first published study to compare BVQ reports of being bullied and of bullying others with independent criteria not subject to shared method variance.…

This article examines how moral disengagement, empathy, belief in a just world, and peer group normative beliefs regarding the roles of bully and defender of the victim are associated with attitudes regarding the roles of the bully and the defender of the victim. Two hundred ninety-two students from grades 6-9 participated. Results showed that…

Bullying via mobile phone text messages (text-bullying) is a growing problem in New Zealand. Little research exists on this important issue. This study examined the nature and prevalence of text-bullying among adolescents. A total of 1,530 students ages 11-18 from three schools in New Zealand participated in this research. Students completed…