The current study longitudinally investigated how personal (depression) and family (parental monitoring) factors affect middle school peer victimization through school factors (academic performance, risky peer influence, and school belongingness) in mainland China. This study relied on large-scale 3-year longitudinal national data from mainland…

This study examined homophobic name-calling among 2,161 middle school students in the US and found that those who had experienced homophobic name-calling fared significantly worse than those who had never experienced it, regardless of whether they were called names by rivals, strangers, or friends. While this study also found evidence that the…

We examined the effect of multiple school-related, resilience-promotive factors against exposure to violence (ETV) at school among an urban sample of 6th-grade students (n = 441, 57% female, mean age = 11.81), 90% identify as students of color. Using multilevel mixed-effects linear models, we analyzed two waves of data (baseline and 4-month…

While the philosophy of deterrence has long been rooted in the criminal justice system and has informed policy and programming, the results of such strategies have been mixed. A handful of research efforts have focused on the relationship between various deterrence perspectives and cyberbullying; however, few address this issue in a non-Western…

Cyberbullying is a growing problem for middle school students. Bystander interventions that train witnesses to positively intervene can prevent cyberbullying. Through six focus groups, we explored forty-six middle school students' experiences with cyberbullying and opportunities for school-based prevention programs to encourage positive bystander…

Arming teachers remains a divisive issue in the United States. Since one goal of this policy is to improve perceptions of safety, it is important to understand how arming teachers impacts students. Using survey data from six Midwestern school districts, we apply Ferraro's risk assessment model to explore how individual and school conditions impact…

The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and implementation of a text message intervention to teach adolescents bystander intervention strategies. Adolescents (N = 123) engaged daily for 15 days with bystander education materials and questions sent to them by text message to their personal cell phones. The likelihood to intervene on…

Prior research has shown that Black and Hispanic students are more likely to experience office discipline referrals than White youth, and the magnitude of these inequalities has been found to vary by gender. However, it remains unclear whether racial/ethnic and gender disparities in office referrals might be amplified among students in more…

The COVID-19 pandemic-induced shift to online learning resulted in students spending more time online while quarantining. Using data collected before and during the pandemic from representative samples of eighth graders, we explored differences in cyberbullying victimization, including factors in students' daily lives that may contribute to…

While prior studies have addressed bullying experienced during school, limited research exists on the associations between participation in school-sponsored extracurricular activities and bullying victimization risk. The current study utilized data from the 2013, 2015, and 2017 National Crime and Victimization Survey's School Crime Supplement (n =…

We examined the effectiveness of the "Say Something Anonymous Reporting System" (SS-ARS) program in improving school safety in a cluster randomized control trial among over 700 students in 19 middle schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The SS-ARS is a program that emphasizes youth engagement and trains youth to recognize…

Research has identified at least three patterns of direct involvement in bullying and victimization: bullying, bullying-victimized, and predominantly victimized. However, little is known about risk and protective factors for these patterns. As such, the goals of the present study were to establish these patterns and examine risk and protective…

School violence, as a special type of violence, refers to behaviors that take the school as a background, occur inside the school, and cause physical and/or psychological harm to school members. This review builds on growing literature in the field of school violence in mainland China with a focus on school bullying as its most common form. It…

Most studies of school bullying in China are atheoretical. To fill the gap in the literature, we introduce criminological theories in an attempt to test propositions broadly derived from these perspectives in the study of physical bullying. Relying on data collected from 12 middle schools (Grades 7 to 9) in three cities with information on both…

Research on generational transmission of violence suggests that parental corporal punishment in Western countries often leads to violent behavior among children. Violence begets violence, to most Western childrearing scholars. However, the socio-cultural context within which corporal punishment is administrated matters and often produces…