This study explored the relations among self-reported bully participant role behaviors (i.e., bullying, assisting, experiencing victimization, defending, and outsider behavior) and self-reported social skills (i.e., cooperation, assertion, empathy, and self-control) among boys and girls. The sample consisted of 636 middle school students (52%…

School counselors help foster student's academic, social, and career development; yet, school counselors are often neglected in research on school climate and student safety. Framed by the theory of planned behavior, this study examined how 206 school counselors' multicultural counseling competence, multicultural self-efficacy, and perceptions of…

The current study investigated the influence of type of aggression (cyberbullying or traditional bullying) and participant role (bystander or perpetrator) on children and adolescents' self-attribution of moral emotions and judgments, while examining the influence of chronological age. Participants (N = 122, 8-16 years) evaluated vignettes and were…

The current study further establishes the reliability and validity of the Bullying Participant Behaviors Questionnaire (BPBQ), a self-report survey that allows for an examination of participation in various bullying participant role behaviors including bully, assistant to the bully, victim, defender of the victim, and outsider. The study included…

This study examines the association between moral disengagement and cyberbullying using a measure of moral disengagement tailored to cyberbullying. It also examines adolescents' self-beliefs in their competence to engage in cyberbullying (cyberbullying self-efficacy beliefs) and how these beliefs may moderate the relation between moral…

Even though previous studies have addressed the relation between face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying, none have studied both phenomena simultaneously. In this article, we present a computer game-based method to study both types of peer aggression among youth. Study participants included fifth graders (N = 93) in two U.S. Midwestern middle…

Using a developmental-contextual framework, the present study investigated risk factors for same- and cross-gender sexual harassment victimization in 986 middle school students. Participants completed questionnaires in the fall and spring of the same school year so risk factors could be explored longitudinally. Results revealed that gender…

Individuals who aggress against others have been described both as having overall low self-concept and as having high, inflated self-concept. The conceptualization of self-concept as domain specific provides an alternate means to resolving this controversy. In this study, 223 middle school students completed self-report measures assessing…

This study compared age and gender differences in adolescents' perceptions of male involvement in relational aggression (RA). After viewing two of four video clips portraying RA, each participating adolescent (N = 314; Grades 8-12) answered questions related to rationalizing bullying behaviors--specifically minimizing bullying, blaming victims,…

The current study examined the relations among self-esteem, approving normative beliefs about bullying, school climate, and bullying perpetration using a large, longitudinal sample of children from elementary, middle, and high school. Self-report surveys were collected at two points in time over the course of 1 year from 7,299 ethnically diverse…

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 study examines various factors that contribute to assaultive behavior in school. We focused on the differences between youth whose behavior was not problematic and those who admitted to threatening, stealing from, or physically assaulting students, teachers, or staff. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to a random sample of…