2-030 - A Social-Ecological Perspective on Bullying and Victimization: Focus on Key Relationships with Peers, Parents, and Teachers

Session Type: Data Blitz

Integrative Statement

Bullying and victimization are complex relationship problems. Bullying is more than a dyadic exchange – it unfolds within youths’ social contexts. Thus, a social-ecological perspective is needed to understand the relationships that promote and inhibit bullying behaviours. Multiple levels of relationships influence bullying, including relationships with peers, parents, and teachers. Peers, parents, and teachers can influence bullying and victimization in both positive and negative ways. First, peers model and reinforce normative behaviour that can serve to promote or inhibit bullying. Additionally, peers are present for the majority of bullying episodes and may intervene to defend victimized youth. While parents and teachers also model and reinforce behaviour, adults can influence bullying and victimization in different ways. For example, parents and teachers monitor risk behaviour, set limits on appropriate behaviour, and provide youth with opportunities to develop healthy relationship skills. Together, relationships with peers, parents, and teachers can also influence bullying behaviors through relationship qualities such as hostility or warmth. In this data blitz symposium, researchers from Canada and the United states will explore the positive and negative influence of peers, parents, and teachers on adolescent bullying and victimization. Taken together, these papers present a social-ecological model of the key relationships that influence bullying behaviours.

Sub Unit

• Aggression and Conduct Problems

Moderator

• Wendy Craig, Queen's University

Individual Presentations

• Reducing Peer Problems: Describing and Evaluating the Beyond the Hurt Program - Presenting Author: Saira John, University of Alberta; Maria Di Stasio, University of Alberta; Wendy Hoglund, University of Alberta

• Are certain types of peer defending riskier than others? A longitudinal study of defending and victimization in school bullying - Presenting Author: Laura Lambe, Queen's University; Joyce Li, Queen's University; Wendy Craig, Queen's University

• Bystander Intervention in Bullying: Understanding, Measuring, and Changing - Presenting Author: Amanda Nickerson, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

• Parenting and Cyberbullying Across Adolescence: A Seven-Year Longitudinal Study - Presenting Author: Hailey Holmgren, University of Minnesota; Jessica D Zurcher, Brigham Young University; Sarah Coyne, Brigham Young University; Christopher Barlett, Gettysburg College

• The Moderating Role of Teacher Support on Peer Victimization and Substance Use in Adolescents - Presenting Author: Lindsay Starosta, The University of British Columbia; Randip Gill, The University of British Columbia; Shelley Hymel, University of British Columbia