Proactive aggression (PA) is goal-directed, hostile social behavior that has been linked to detrimental outcomes. It has been theorized that adolescents who believe aggression is a normal and acceptable social response (approval of aggression) are more likely to show PA. Confidence in one's ability to behave aggressively (self-efficacy about…

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…

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 determines the relative strength of predictors of school violence among a sample of 229 girls enrolled in a single middle school. The four-part questionnaire, comprising sociodemographic items, a school violence inventory, a self-esteem scale, and an attitudes toward violence scale, measured school violence in terms of suspendable…

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…

In an effort to assess students' perceptions of victimization in their schools, as well as their schools' safety, over 1,900 students from elementary, middle, high, and alternative schools were administered a 154-item questionnaire. The responses on the items were used to establish the psychometric properties of 19 theoretically driven scales and…