Enrica Ciucci

Narrative strategies in bullies and victims in Italian schools

It is hypothesised that bullies and victims use different strategies to interpret social incongruence,An Italian version of Olweus [(1991): Erlbaum] and Whitney and Smiths [(1993): Educational Research 35:3-25] questionnaire on bullying was employed to select 61 bullies, 40 victims, and 101 controls from a wider sample of students aged 11, 12, and 13 years. Six stories dealing with themes of social interaction between two peers were chosen as the task of the study, These stories described an episode in which the protagonist carried out an act that violated his/her normal behaviour toward the peer. Three stories ended in negative violating acts and three ended in positive ones. Students were asked to try to imagine what had happened prior to the act and how the peer would react to such an act, Dependent variables were locus of attribution of the antecedents to the protagonist or to the environment; use of verbs indicating actions or mental events; and Aggressive, Prosocial, or Neutral reaction of the peer. Two main results were found: (1) tno main strategies of answer differentiated bullies and victims: bullies--more frequently than victims--used a Protagonist-Mental strategy in which stories were mainly completed using antecedents consisting of mental states of the protagonist, while victims-more frequently than bullies--used an En Environment-Action strategy, in which stories were mainly completed using, as antecedents, other peoples actions toward the protagonist; and (2) bullies were more similar to the control group than victims were.

Emotion Perception Accuracy and Bias in Face-to-Face Versus Cyberbullying

ABSTRACT. The authors investigated the association of traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization with emotion perception accuracy and emotion perception bias. Four basic emotions were considered (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear); 526 middle school students (280 females; M age = 12.58 years, SD = 1.16 years) were recruited, and emotionality was controlled. Results indicated no significant findings for girls. Boys with higher levels of traditional bullying did not show any deficit in perception accuracy of emotions, but they were prone to identify happiness and fear in faces when a different emotion was expressed; in addition, male cyberbullying was related to greater accuracy in recognizing fear. In terms of the victims, cyber victims had a global problem in recognizing emotions and a specific problem in processing anger and fear. It was concluded that emotion perception accuracy and bias were associated with bullying and victimization for boys not only in traditional settings but also in the electronic ones. Implications of these findings for possible intervention are discussed.

Emotion-related personality traits and peer social standing: unique and interactive effects in cyberbullying behaviors

This study investigated the unique and interactive effects of emotion-related personality traits (i.e., callousness and uncaring traits) and peer social standing (i.e., social preference and perceived popularity) on cyberbullying behaviors in preadolescents. A total of 529 preadolescents (247 boys, 46.69%) were recruited from an Italian middle school (Mage=12 years and 7 months; SD=1 year and 2 months). The participants primarily consisted of Italian children (91.12%). A series of binary logistic regression analyses parted by gender were conducted to examine the main and interactive effects of self-reported emotion-related variables and peer-reported social standing in the prediction of self-reported cyberbullying behaviors, while controlling for cyber victimization and grade effects. In girls, an uncaring disposition was directly associated with cyberbullying behaviors, whereas in boys this association only emerged for those with low perceived popularity. Our results indicated that, in developing anti(cyber)bullying programs, school researchers and practitioners should jointly consider individual and contextual factors.

Callous-unemotional traits, borderline personality, and self-injury in gothic subculture

Abstract The present study investigates individual characteristics of a sample of young adults from gothic subculture, in terms of personality traits (i.e., borderline personality and callous-unemotional traits), prevalence and functions of non-suicidal self-injury behaviours (i.e., internal emotion regulation, external emotion regulation, social influence, and sensation seeking). Fifty-one young adults (28 girls and 23 boys, mean age = 26.20, SD = 4.61) were recruited at a gothic meeting in Italy. They completed self-report questionnaires related to self-injury behaviours and self-injury functions, along with measures of borderline personality disorder and callous-unemotional traits. The results indicated that nearly 65% of the participants reported having committed self-injury at least once. Moreover, both bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated that self-injury behaviours were related to borderline personality and internal emotion regulation function. Lastly, association between considered personality traits and self-injury functions were investigated. Overall, results indicated that in gothic subculture self-injury has the function of regulating emotion to maintain the integrity of the Self and is related to the perception of a traumatic reality in which derealization coexists with extreme self-directed aggression.

A Comparison of Nonpharmacologic Interventions on the Emotional State of Children in the Emergency Department.

Objectives The majority of children and adolescents presenting to the emergency department are in pain and require painful procedures. This randomized study was to investigate the efficacy of 3 different nonpharmacologic interventions (clowns, dogs, and musicians) to reduce pain and analyze the perception of positive and negative affects after the presence of these activities in a short-stay observation unit (SSOU). Methods Participants were composed of 105 children (54 boys and 51 girls; aged 3–16 years) assigned randomly to an experimental group (N = 57) that was composed of patients who were present in the SSOU. They received one of the following nonpharmacologic interventions: clowns (n = 18), dogs (n = 24), or musicians (n = 15) or they were assigned to a control group (CG) (N = 48) that consists of the patients who were present in the SSOU without the presence of nonpharmacologic interventions. Results Differences among the groups did not emerge; in fact, the 3 interventions have a similar influence in a different way on a childs well-being. No significant main effect about pain emerged for both groups across age and sex. Conclusions The presence of different nonpharmacologic interventions (clowns, dogs, and musicians) seemed to empower positive affect in children but did not influence the self-reported pain.

I bambini raccontano e interpretano le storie familiari

1La maggior parte delle interazioni che avvengono in famiglia, da quelle piu formali a quelle meno formali, sono focalizzate sul raccontare storie riguardanti la famiglia stessa, sul ricostruire gli eventi che i membri della famiglia hanno condiviso nel passato. Queste storie, spesso dette e ridette, forniscono informazioni sulla forma della vita emozionale di ciascuna famiglia, sul suo pathos. Gli studiosi che si occupano di narrazioni sostengono che le storie familiari contribuiscono alla definizione delle identita individuali e familiari, ma anche al mantenimento dei legami sociali ed emotivi oltre che al benessere ed alla resilienza individuale (Smorti, 2008). Ochs e collaboratori (1992) esaminando i modi con cui le famiglie riraccontano le stesse storie per spiegare e chiarificare, sottolineano come la funzione delle storie familiari sia quella di influenzare le memorie degli eventi, incoraggiare la capacita di assumere la prospettiva dell’altro ed anche costruire teorie e ruoli relazionali entro la famiglia. Analogamente, Fivush (Fivush et al., 2004) sostiene che ricreando gli eventi del passato che riguardano la famiglia, genitori e bambini raccontano storie familiari che forniscono un senso del se in relazione agli altri attraverso il tempo. Inoltre, ricordare le esperienze familiari del passato serve a creare e mantenere legami sociali ed emotivi poiche richiama cio che e accaduto e fornisce informazioni sulle reazioni emotive e i sentimenti legati agli eventi. In particolare, i lavori di Fivush pongono l’attenzione sulle differenze individuali nel modo con cui i genitori ricordano le esperienze condivise del passato, emotivamente positive e negative, con i loro bambini piccoli e come queste differenze possono avere implicazioni per lo sviluppo del senso del se dei bambini e per il loro benessere emotivo e resilienza.