Psychology Commons^™

Indirect Effects Of Hpa Axis Dysregulation In The Association Between Peer Victimization And Depressed Affect During Early Adolescence, Ryan E. Adams, Jonathan Santo, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective

Previous research has identified a link between peer victimization and depressive symptoms during adolescence. The goal of the current study is to examine the possible indirect effects of HPA axis dysregulation in the link between adolescent peer victimization and depressive symptoms.

Method

A total of 113 boys (n = 61) and girls (n = 52) participants from grade 5 (M age = 10.31 years) and grade 6 (M age = 11.33 years) who were predominantly European-Canadian completed self-report measures of peer victimization and depressed affect as well as, measures of salivary cortisol and self-reports of …

Socially Responsible Children: A Link Between School Climate And Aggression And Victimization, Josafa M. Da Cunha, Kendra J. Thomas, Paweena Sukhawathanakul, Jonathan Santo, Bonnie Leadbeater

Psychology Faculty Publications

Positive perceptions of school climate are associated with lower frequency of peer victimization and aggression in children. Understanding how school climate influences aggression and victimization is essential to guiding school-level interventions to enhance character strengths such as social responsibility. In this short-term longitudinal study, we test a theoretical model arguing that children’s social responsibility mediates the links between their positive perceptions of school climate (comprised of authoritative disciplinary classroom structure, classroom support, and teachers’ use of social–emotional learning [SEL] strategies) and changes in their reports of victimization and aggression, in a sample of Brazilian students in Grades 4 and 5 …

Gender Minoritized Students And Academic Engagement In Brazilian Adolescents: Risk And Protective Factors, Alexa Martin-Storey, Jonathan Santo, Holly E. Recchia, Shayla Chilliak, Henrique Caetano Nardi, Josafa M. Da Cunha

Psychology Faculty Publications

Gender minoritized students experience unique challenges in their school environments that may have consequences for their educational outcomes, including academic engagement. The goal of the current study was to understand the association between gender identity and academic engagement among adolescents attending public high schools in Paraná, Brazil (N = 10,828). In particular, student perceptions of student-teacher relationships, school rule fairness and clarity, school-wide academic engagement, and peer victimization were examined as four facilitator/barrier factors that may account for lower levels of academic engagement for gender minoritized students as compared to their cisgender peers, and these processes were tested for …

Unpacking The Misfit Effect: Exploring The Influence Of Gender And Social Norms On The Association Between Aggression And Peer Victimization, Ellyn Bass, Lina María Saldarriaga, Ana Maria Velasquez, Jonathan Santo, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social norms are vital for the functioning of adolescent peer groups; they can protect the well-being of groups and individual members, often by deterring harmful behaviors, such as aggression, through enforcement mechanisms like peer victimization; in adolescent peer groups, those who violate aggression norms are often subject to victimization. However, adolescents are nested within several levels of peer group contexts, ranging from small proximal groups, to larger distal groups, and social norms operate within each. This study assessed whether there are differences in the enforcement of aggression norms at different levels. Self-report and peer-nomination data were collected four times over …

School Climate And Peer Victimization: Perceptions Of Students With Intellectual Disability, Hellen Tsuruda Amaral, Josafa M. Da Cunha, Iasmin Zanchi Boueri, Jonathan Santo

Psychology Faculty Publications

Considering the experiences of students with intellectual disabilities (ID) in educational environments, peer victimization stands out for potential losses to development. This is a relationship problem, which requires an understanding of contextual factors. In the approach of the authoritative school climate, the perception of support and disciplinary structure act as possible attenuators of peer victimization. However, the association between school climate and victimization is rarely examined in samples with people with ID. Thus, the study aimed to examine the associations between authoritative school climate and peer victimization through a procedure accessibleto the self-report of people with ID. It was hypothesized …

Authoritative School Climate And Peer Victimization Among Brazilian Students, Hellen Tsuruda Amaral, Josafa M. Da Cunha, Jonathan Santo

Psychology Faculty Publications

According to the Authoritative School Climate theory, a school environment perceived with high levels of support and disciplinary structure can be a protective factor against violence. Therefore, the current study aimed to understand how support and disciplinary structure affected peer victimization among Brazilian students. Participants were 420 students from Brazil, between 7 and 14 years old (mean=10.02; S.D. = .91); 51.5% of the participants were boys. Measures were obtained from a self-report questionnaire with measures of victimization, authoritative school climate and sociodemographic data. Using multilevel modeling between individual and same-sex peer group analyses, 89.86% of the victimization variability was at …

Contextual Influences On The Relations Between Physical And Relational Aggression And Peer Victimization, Jonathan Santo, Ellyn Bass, Luz Stella-Lopez, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Previous studies have demonstrated that several contextual factors influence the relationship between aggression and peer victimization in early adolescence, including gender of the same-sex peer group and gender composition of the school. The current study replicated and expanded on this research by examining the moderating influences of gender of the same-sex peer group, same-sex peer group norms, and classroom gender composition in a sample of early adolescents from Barranquilla, Colombia. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that both relational and physical aggression were positive predictors of peer victimization. Relationally aggressive girls were at a lower risk for victimization while physically aggressive girls …

A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of The Relations Of Physical And Relational Aggression With Peer Victimization, Ellyn Bass, Lina María Saldarriaga, Josafa M. Da Cunha, Bin-Bin Chen, Jonathan Santo, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

To better address the many consequences of peer victimization, research must identify not only aspects of individuals that put them at risk for victimization, such as aggression, but also aspects of the context that influence the extent of that risk. To this end, this study examined the contextual influences of gender, same-sex peer group norms of physical and relational aggression, and nationality on the associations of physical and relational aggression with peer victimization in early adolescents from Canada, China, Brazil, and Colombia (N = 865; Mage = 11.01, SD = 1.24; 55% boys). Structural equation modeling was used to …

Context-Dependent Peer Victimization: Are Physical And Relational Aggression Tolerated Differently In Mixed-Sex Versus All-Girl Schools?, Ana María Velásquez, Jonathan Bruce Santo, Lina María Saldarriaga, Luz Stella López, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Contextual differences in the association between different forms of aggressive behavior and victimization were studied with a sample of 197 boys and 149 girls from mixed-sex schools and in 336 girls from all-girl schools (M = 10.21 years of age) in two cities in Colombia. Results showed that boys generally engage in more physical than relational aggression, whereas girls engage in more relational than physical aggression. Among boys, the association between aggression and victimization was significant only for the measure of relational aggression, whereas, for girls, victimization was significantly correlated only with physical aggression. This latter association was found to …