Adrienne Nishina

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Names Will Make Me Feel Sick: The Psychosocial, Somatic, and Scholastic Consequences of Peer Harassment

This study examined associations among peer victimization, psychosocial problems, physical symptoms, and school functioning across the 1st year in middle school. An ethnically diverse sample of urban 6th graders (N = 1,526) reported on their perceptions of peer victimization, psychosocial adjustment, and physical symptoms during fall and spring. Objective measures of school functioning (i.e., grade point average and absences) were also collected. In Model 1, peer victimization in the fall was associated with spring psychosocial maladjustment and physical symptoms, which in turn predicted poor spring school functioning. Model 2 suggested that psychosocial difficulties increase the risk of victimization, although physical symptoms did not predict victimization. No sex or ethnic group (African American, Asian, European American, and Latino) differences were found in the model structure or the strength of the path coefficients for either model, suggesting that the process is the same for boys and girls and students from different ethnic groups.

Marital satisfaction, recovery from work, and diurnal cortisol among men and women.

DESIGN Multilevel modeling was used to model relationships between salivary cortisol, daily diary ratings of work experiences, and Marital Adjustment Test scores (Locke & Wallace, 1959), in a sample of 60 adults who sampled saliva 4 times per day over 3 days. RESULTS Among women but not men, marital satisfaction was significantly associated with a stronger basal cortisol cycle, with higher morning values and a steeper decline across the day. For women but not men, marital satisfaction moderated the within-subjects association between afternoon and evening cortisol level, such that marital quality appeared to bolster womens physiological recovery from work. For both men and women, evening cortisol was lower than usual on higher-workload days, and marital satisfaction augmented this association among women. Men showed higher evening cortisol after more distressing social experiences at work, an association that was strongest among men with higher marital satisfaction. CONCLUSION This work has implications for the study of physiological recovery from work, and also suggests a pathway by which marital satisfaction influences allostatic load and physical health.

School Context Protective Factors Against Peer Ethnic Discrimination Across the High School Years

Ethnically diverse high school contexts present unique social opportunities for youth to form interethnic relationships, but they may also subject students to certain social challenges such as peer ethnic discrimination. With a sample of 1,072 high school students (55% girls; 54% Latino, 20% African American, 14% Asian, 12% White) attending 84 high schools, school context factors that protect students’ exposure to peer ethnic discrimination across the high school years were investigated with a three-level hierarchical linear model. Each spring for four consecutive years (grades 9–12), self-reported peer ethnic discrimination, interracial climate at school, and perceived school ethnic composition were assessed. At the school level, objective high school ethnic composition data were collected. Peer ethnic discrimination was found to decline slightly across the high school years. Above and beyond this decline, more positive perceptions of the school interracial climate and both objective and perceived numerical ethnic majority status predicted lower levels of peer ethnic discrimination. Taken together, the results highlight the significance of both objective (e.g., ethnic composition) and subjective (e.g., interracial climate) aspects of the school ethnic context to students’ high school social experiences.

Mutual antipathies during early adolescence: More than just rejection

Recent research suggests that having a mutual antipathy, in comparison to not having an antipathy, is associated with a host of negative outcomes. However, the methods used may not have adequately controlled for rejection and therefore may have provided an incomplete description of the psychosocial correlates of having a mutual antipathy. With a sample of approximately 2000 sixth-grade students, the goal of the present study was to disentangle the effects of rejection from those of having mutual antipathies and assess whether or not involvement in a mutual antipathy reflects maladaptive behaviour for young adolescents. When controlling for rejection, and including only students who received at least one rejection nomination, having a mutual antipathy was not necessarily associated with increased maladjustment. Additionally, when compared to boys and girls with no antipathies, those involved in at least one same-sex antipathy had different psychosocial adjustment profiles than those involved in at least one opposite-sex antipathy. The results indicate the need to carefully choose comparison groups when examining the correlates of mutual antipathies.

A Theoretical Review of Bullying: Can It Be Eliminated?

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a theoretical framework for analyzing bullying. The framework uses a social-biological perspective that suggests that bullying behavior might serve specific social and evolutionarily adaptive functions. Bullying, commonly known in the research literature as “peer victimization” or “peer harassment,” is a form of social interaction that many children and adolescents encounter. Peer harassment is a form of social interaction that many school children experience. Self-reports are the most common method of assessment. With this method, youth are asked to indicate how frequently they experience various forms of harassment within a given time frame. Peer harassment manifests itself in different forms. In addition to physical and direct verbal aggression, threats, destruction of property, invasion of physical space, gestures, and indirect aggression are also considered forms of peer harassment. Potential negative consequences are associated with bullying for students who do not fall into the roles of bullies, victims, or bully-victims. Perceptions of high peer victimization levels within a school have been found to be associated with more negative perceptions of school climate, which in turn have been related to decreased school engagement.Publisher Summary This chapter provides a theoretical framework for analyzing bullying. The framework uses a social-biological perspective that suggests that bullying behavior might serve specific social and evolutionarily adaptive functions. Bullying, commonly known in the research literature as “peer victimization” or “peer harassment,” is a form of social interaction that many children and adolescents encounter. Peer harassment is a form of social interaction that many school children experience. Self-reports are the most common method of assessment. With this method, youth are asked to indicate how frequently they experience various forms of harassment within a given time frame. Peer harassment manifests itself in different forms. In addition to physical and direct verbal aggression, threats, destruction of property, invasion of physical space, gestures, and indirect aggression are also considered forms of peer harassment. Potential negative consequences are associated with bullying for students who do not fall into the roles of bullies, victims, or bully-victims. Perceptions of high peer victimization levels within a school have been found to be associated with more negative perceptions of school climate, which in turn have been related to decreased school engagement.

When Might Peer Aggression, Victimization, and Conflict Have Its Largest Impact? Microcontextual Considerations

Peer aggression, victimization, and conflict are common occurrences during early adolescence. In the collection of articles in this special issue, several themes emerged, including the use of social psychological theory, individual difference variables, and social context. This article briefly reviews these articles and presents original data that examine microcontextual characteristics (i.e., context of specific events) of sixth and ninth graders’ peer victimization. Students completed daily reports on 5 school days across 2 weeks. Adolescents’ experiences were mostly public (i.e., witnessed by another individual) and perpetrated by a single student from the same grade. Adolescents were unlikely to receive help from others (less than half the time when a witness was present). Ninth-grade data suggest that friends are the most likely witnesses to help the target. Strangers to the target never intervened or tried to help. These findings are discussed in light of implications for prevention and intervention.

How you look versus how you feel: Associations between BMI z-score, body dissatisfaction, peer victimization, and self-worth for African American and white adolescents

Being overweight and having negative self-perceptions (body dissatisfaction) can have problematic consequences for adolescents physically, socially, and psychologically. Understanding associations between weight, self-perceptions, and peer experiences across ethnicities is particularly important given recent increases in obesity among ethnic minorities. The current study aimed to address these issues by examining Body Mass Index (BMI) z-scores and body dissatisfaction predicting change in general self-worth over time via peer victimization experiences in a diverse sample of 236 youth (ages 10-16 years). Body dissatisfaction predicted decreases in self-worth over time even after controlling for BMI z-score. BMI z-scores predicted decreases in self-worth over time only for white adolescents, whereas body dissatisfaction directly predicted decreases in self-worth for African American youth and indirectly via peer victimization for white youth. Associations were also considered by gender. Implications for intervention efforts for both white and African American adolescents are discussed.

Utilizing the desired results developmental profile as a measure of school readiness: evaluating factor structure and predictors of school readiness

ABSTRACT A disconnect exists between definitions of school readiness used in research and early childhood education (ECE). While researchers often discuss school readiness as a single, multidimensional construct, the majority of studies operationalize it using multiple measures rather than as one outcome. In comparison, in ECE settings a single measurement tool including multiple dimensions is used. The current study attempted to bridge this gap by examining the factor structure of the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP), a measure of school readiness used in Head Start. We considered often-cited predictors of school readiness (parenting, effortful control) to replicate previous research findings. Analyses indicated a single factor was most appropriate for the DRDP. Measures of parenting and children’s effortful control were significant predictors of DRDP scores. Findings from the current study suggest an existing single factor, ECE-based measure of school readiness, such as the DRDP, can also be used as a research tool.

Sharing, Trading, Stealing Exploring the Role of Peers in Shaping Foods Available at Lunchtime

Childhood obesity continues to be a major concern in the United States, warranting a comprehensive approach. However, the majority of research studies continue to neglect the influence of peers on dietary behaviors. The present descriptive study aimed to provide information about the ways peers directly shape dietary choices via food exchanges (i.e., sharing, trading, and stealing). Peer food exchanges were examined through daily observations in a sample of 76 fifth-graders. Peer food exchanges occurred among students, in particular, those who brought packed lunch engaged in more sharing exchanges. Obese students engaged in an increased amount of interactions in which they gained food from peers. Findings suggest that students are not always eating what their parents packed for them or the school lunch provides. Future intervention efforts should consider the role that peers play in shaping youth’s dietary behavior through a peer food market economy.

The meaning of peer harassment in the United States

Taylor and Francis Ltd CUS_A_168246.sgm 10.1080/00220270600682762 Journal of Curri ulum Studies 0 22-0272 (p i t)/136 -5839 (online) Original Article 2 06 & Francis 0002 6 Assistant P ofes or A rienn Nish a ani hin @ucdavis edu In response to a surge in concern among school personnel in the US about bullying on school campuses, a number of edited volumes on the topic have appeared in recent years.1 Although there has been a concern for aggressive children and adolescents for decades, it was not until the late-1970s that Olweus (1978) recognized peer victimization as a potentially detrimental social occurrence in schools in his book Aggression in the Schools: Bullies and Whipping Boys: