Matty van der Meulen

Peer and self-reports of victimization and bullying: Their differential association with internalizing problems and social adjustment

Researchers typically employ either peer or self-reports to assess involvement in bullying. In this study, we examined the merits of each method for the identification of child characteristics related to victimization and bullying others. Accordingly, we investigated the difference between these two methods with regard to their relationship with social adjustment (i.e., perceived popularity, likeability, and self-perceived social acceptance) and internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, and self-worth) in 1192 Dutch school children, aged 9 to 12 years. Perceived popularity and likeability were more strongly correlated with peer reports than self-reports, for both victimization and for bullying others. Self-perceived social acceptance correlated equally strong with peer and self- reports of victimization. Furthermore, peer reports of bullying were also correlated with self-perceived social acceptance, whereas self-reports of bullying were not. All internalizing problems showed stronger relations with self-reports than peer reports; although only the relation between self-reported victimization and internalizing problems was of practical significance. Despite our findings indicating that using only one type of report could be efficient for examining the relation between bullying behaviors and separate child characteristics, both types of report are necessary for a complete understanding of the personal and social well-being of the children involved.

Measuring young children's perceptions of support, control, and maintenance in their own social networks

Thirty-eight children (aged 3;7-7;6) and one of their parents took part in a study concerning children perceptions of their social networks. The study made use of a newly developed instrument-the Support, Control and Maintenance Pictures Interview (SCAMPI). The SCAMPI offers an individualized testing environment, employing computer presentation of questions based on photographs of significant persons familiar to the child. SCAMPI is designed to allow data analysis to be carried out with the aid of built-in statistical procedures based on permutation and bootstrap techniques that are optimally adapted to the requirements of individualized testing The study examines the differentiations young children make between persons in their social networks and the functions they fulfil, the level of agreement between children and their parents and the stability of the children responses.