Stelios N. Georgiou

Bullying and victimization at school: The role of mothers

BACKGROUND Social learning literature is used in order to describe the contextual parameters of peer aggression, and specifically bullying and victimization. AIM The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of maternal characteristics on their childs victimization or bullying experience at school. SAMPLE The participants were 252 elementary school students (mean age 11.5 years) and their mothers. METHOD A theoretically driven model was developed and its ability to fit the data was tested. The main factors included in the model were the following: parental style as perceived by the child, self-reported parental involvement, the mothers emotional state and the degree of victimization experienced by the child at school. RESULTS Through confirmatory factor analysis, it was shown that maternal responsiveness was positively related to the childs adjustment at school (i.e. achievement and social adaptation), while the same factor was negatively related to school aggression (bullying and disrupting behaviour). Overprotective mothering was associated with high degrees of victimization experienced by the child, whereas maternal depressiveness was related to both victimization and bullying behaviour on the part of the child. CONCLUSIONS Parents should be included in the design of intervention plans aiming at the elimination of bullying at school.

Parental attributions as predictors of involvement and influences on child achievement.

BACKGROUND This study, which was conducted in Cyprus, combines the theoretical framework of attribution research with that of parent involvement literature. AIM Its aim was to investigate the role of parental attributions as predictors of parental involvement in their childs educational process and to examine the influence of both of these factors on the childs actual school achievement. SAMPLE The parents of 473 sixth grade students in 22 public elementary schools participated in the study. Data were also collected from students and their teachers. METHOD Participating parents completed questionnaires regarding their attributions of their childs achievement and their own degree of involvement in his/her life. RESULTS It was found that parents who believed that their own role was important for their childs achievement tended to be more controlling and to be keener in developing the childs interests. Also, the parental attribution of the childs achievement to the childs own effort was positively related to the childs actual achievement results. Finally, it was found that the childs actual school achievement was directly related to the parental interest-developing behaviour, but it was not significantly related to the parental controlling behaviour. CONCLUSIONS Through a structural equation model and a path analysis procedure, it was shown that a line of influence exists between parental attribution style, the type and degree of parental involvement and the childs actual academic achievement.

Bullies, Victims and Bully-Victims: Psychosocial Profiles and Attribution Styles.

This study aimed at examining the differences between bullies, victims, bully-victims and students that are non involved in peer violence in terms of their temperament, their degree of deviation from the typical in appearance or behaviour and the degree of their peer acceptance. Furthermore, the study compared the attributions used by the members of the above groups to explain the causes of peer violence. The participants were 377 Greek Cypriot early adolescents (mean age 11.6). It was found that bully-victims were more temperamental, more different than the typical student and more isolated socially than the other three groups to a statistically significant level (p < 0.05). Also, the same group members tended to use external attributions for explaining the causes of peer violence.

Bullying and empathy: a short‐term longitudinal investigation

The aim of this study was to test the direction of effect in the relationship between bullying and empathy. The participants were 205 sixth‐grade students, randomly selected from urban and rural schools in Cyprus. A six‐month, two‐time‐point longitudinal design was used in which the participants completed the bullying subscale of the Revised Bullying and Victimisation Questionnaire (BVQ‐R) and the Basic Empathy Scale. The results of this study showed that bullying at Time 1 negatively predicted the affective component of empathy at Time 2. Moreover, children’s affective empathy at Time 1 negatively predicted bullying at Time 2. The results of this study indicate towards a reciprocal model of understanding the relationship between bullying and empathy.

Parental involvement: Definition and outcomes

The purpose of this study was to seek a definition of the concept of parental involvement and to examine the relationship that may exist between school achievement and specific parental involvement activities. Data were collected from 852 parents of sixth-grade students of both genders. It was found that the involvement of parents in their childrens educational process is a complex behavior that may take different forms, not all of which are related to the childs school achievement. The following six types of parental involvement were identified through factor analysis: learning at home, volunteering and decision making at school, and four different parenting tendencies (emphasizing achievement, pressure, control, and personality development). Parenting through emphasis on achievement and through personality development had a positive, statistically significant correlation with actual school achievement, while parenting through pressure had a negative such correlation. A positive correlation was also found between parental volunteering at school and the childs actual school achievement. Learning at home and parenting through control had no significant correlation with achievement. The findings of this study suggest that the six distinct types of behavior that make up parental involvement have differential effects in relation to school achievement.

Beliefs of Experienced and Novice Teachers about Achievement.

The aim of this study was to examine the beliefs that experienced and novice teachers hold about school achievement. It is important to investigate these beliefs and attributions because of the significant role that teachers play in the lives of most children. A group of Greek Cypriot elementary school teachers (n = 154) and a comparable group of teacher education students (n = 159) completed the Beliefs About School Achievement (BASA) scale. It was found that, in comparison to student teachers, experienced teachers tend to attribute achievement more to factors that are biologically determined, uncontrollable by the child, and stable over time – such as intellectual ability. They also believe significantly more than student teachers that factors such as gender and family background play an important role in child achievement. In contrast, novice teachers believe more in the role that teachers play in student learning and in the importance of student effort.

Achievement Attributions of Sixth Grade Children and Their Parents

Abstract The present study examines the achievement attributions of Greek Cypriot students and their parents. Its aim was to investigate the role of parental and child achievement attributions as parameters of the childs actual school achievement and to examine the existing differences between attributions made by children and their parents. A total of 477 Sixth Grade Greek Cypriot students and their parents participated in the study. A structural equation model was constructed and its ability to fit the data was tested. It was found that child attributions of achievement to effort, ability and other internal factors are positively related to actual achievement, while attributions to luck and external factors are negatively related to achievement. This is in line with earlier findings. Parental and child attributions are not strongly and reliably related. Thus, claims that children develop their own attributions on the basis of their parents’ attributions were not supported. Gender differences were found...

Attachment to Parents and Peers as a Parameter of Bullying and Victimization

The purpose of the present study was threefold. First, we tried to investigate whether the quality of attachment with parents and peers predicts bullying and victimization. Second, we also attempted a moderation analysis in order to examine whether the relationship between quality of attachments and bullying is moderated by the child’s gender. Finally, we explored whether there are significant differences in the quality of attachment between children identified as bullies, victims, bully/victims, and uninvolved. The participants were 303 fifth and sixth grade children with a mean age of 11.06 years that completed the Revised Bullying and Victimization Questionnaire and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment. The results showed that poor quality of attachment with parents and peers predicts bullying and victimization. Moderation analysis revealed that the link between quality of attachment and bullying and victimization is significantly stronger for girls. Also, as hypothesized, bullies and bully/victims manifest the worst quality of attachment with parents and peers. The results are discussed with the framework of attachment and aggression theory, exploring the pathways that explain the association between poor attachment and externalizing problems during late childhood.

Longitudinal investigation of the relationship between bullying and psychosocial adjustment

The aim of the present study was to test the direction of effects in the relationship between bullying, victimization, adjustment difficulties, and school achievement. The participants were 238 fifth and sixth-grade children (mean age 11.4 years) and their teachers in a six-month two-timepoint longitudinal study. The results of this study showed that bullying and victimization at Time 1 were related to an increase of adjustment problems and a decrease of school achievement at Time 2. Conversely, adjustment problems at Time 1 were related to an increase in bullying and victimization at Time 2. School achievement at Time 1, however, was not related to bullying and victimization at Time 2. The results of this study provide evidence towards a reciprocal relationship between bullying, victimization, and adjustment difficulties.

Is Victor Better than Victoria at Maths

The aim of this study was to examine whether there are gender differences in actual maths achievement, in attitudes towards maths, and in relevant achievement attributions among early adolescents. The participants were 255 eighth grade students (mean age 14.2) from 10 randomly selected public junior high schools in Cyprus. They completed a questionnaire that measured their attributions of their own maths achievement and their attitudes towards the subject (how attractive and useful it is). Then they took a maths achievement test and immediately afterwards they reported their affective reactions towards the test (how challenging or threatening they thought it was). No significant differences were found between boys and girls in actual maths achievement. Significant differences were found, however, in the way the two genders explain their performance. Boys tend to believe more than girls do that their intellectual abilities are causing their high marks in maths. Also, it was found that high achievement could predict a positive attitude towards mathematics, but not vice versa. These findings contradict the widespread beliefs that (a) girls are not as good at maths as boys are; and (b) better attitudes towards maths lead to better performance.