Teresa I. Jiménez

An analysis of the relationship between victimization and violent behavior at school

Previous studies have identified two subgroups of school violence victims: submissive and aggressive. Submissive victims are characterized by their withdrawal in violent situations, while aggressive victims combine hostile behavior with victimization. This study focuses on the second subgroup and aims to analyze possible factors influencing the transition from passive victimization to involvement in aggressive behaviors within the school context. To test these relationships, 1319 adolescents between 12 and 16 years of age were recruited from seven secondary schools in various Spanish provinces. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to analyze the data. Results supported Emlers theory, which posits that the victims helplessness in situations of intimidation, along with disappointment resulting from a lack of expected protection from adult authority figures, may result in adolescents searching and developing an antisocial and non-conformist reputation that helps them defend themselves against future attacks. Practical implications of these results are further discussed.

The relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and depressive symptomatology: the mediating role of perceived stress.

This study investigated the mediating role of perceived stress in the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and depressive symptoms in adolescence. A total of 661 high school Spanish students participated in the study. The analyses indicated that the effects of each of the perceived emotional intelligence sub-scales (namely, Attention, Clarity and Repair) on depressive symptomatology were partially mediated by perceived stress. Specifically, the mediating effect was negative for Clarity and Repair, but positive for attention. The analysis also showed that the direct effects were positive for all sub-scales. These results suggest that the promotion of stress management skills may be core in the development of prevention and treatment programs for depression in adolescents, and possibly more beneficial than the promotion of emotion regulation skills. Our findings, along with previous evidence, suggest that emotional attention, as measured in the present study, may be targeting a pathological type of attention.

Spanish Validation of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y)

Psychological inflexibility (PI) refers to the overarching and nonadaptive avoidance of thoughts and feelings. PI is a transdiagnostic process that is present in numerous psychopathologies, such as anxiety and mood disorders, addictive behaviors, and chronic pain, as presented by American adults and adolescents. Despite the high rates of depression and depressed mood among Spanish and Latino adolescents and the observed relation between PI and adjustment problems at this age, an instrument assessing PI in Spanish-speaking adolescents is lacking. In this study, we assessed the psychometric properties of a Spanish adaptation of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth with 483 students from Spain (mean age 13.89 years). The Spanish Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth proved to be a two-factor psychometrically sound instrument. Total PI scores correlated positively with depression and negatively with satisfaction with life. The predictive validity results showed cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance to be two interrelated but distinct processes that characterize PI.

A Cross-Cultural Study in Spain and Mexico on School Aggression in Adolescence Examining the Role of Individual, Family, and School Variables

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between family and classroom environments and the development of particular individual characteristics, including level of empathy, attitude to institutional authority, and perceived social reputation, and the role these characteristics may in turn play in aggressive behavior. These factors and associations were analyzed by gender and in two different Latin contexts, Spain and Mexico, from a cross-cultural perspective. Participants in the study were 1,319 Spanish adolescents and 1,494 Mexican adolescents drawn from secondary schools. Structural equation models were calculated to test mediational effects among variables. Results obtained indicated, in general terms, that the level of empathy, the social reputation, and the attitude to authority partly mediated the relationship between the environment perceived by boys and girls at home and school, and their aggressive behavior, in both samples. Other similarities and differences between genders and samples were also found and are discussed.

School aggression in adolescence: examining the role of individual, family and school variables

Background/Objective: The purpose of the present study was to analyse the role of family and classroom environments on the development of particular individual characteristics including level of empathy, attitude to institutional authority and perceived social reputation, and the mediational role these characteristics may play in school aggression. Relationships among variables were analysed by gender. Method: Participants in the study were 1,494 Mexican adolescents aged 12 to 18, 45% male, and drawn from six secondary schools. Structural equation models were calculated to test mediational effects among variables. Results: Findings obtained indicated that the level of empathy, the social reputation, and the attitude to authority mediated the relationship between the environment perceived by boys at home and school, and their aggressive behaviour at school. This mediation was partial for girls. Conclusions: Differences between genders and the importance of the adolescent-context interrelations in the explanation of their aggressive behaviour at school were discussed.

Emotional intelligence and empathy in aggressors and victims of school violence.

The present study was organized around 2 main objectives: first, to analyze emotional intelligence (EI) both in aggressors and victims of school violence, considering 3 dimensions of EI—emotional attention, emotional clarity, and emotion regulation—and second, to analyze empathy in aggressors and victims of school violence, taking into consideration 2 dimensions—cognitive and affective empathy. Participants were 1,318 Spanish adolescents, aged between 11 and 17 years (47% boys) enrolled in 4 secondary schools, and who completed self-report measures. Analyses of variance were conducted to analyze the data. The results indicated that, regarding EI, victims of school violence scored significantly higher in the dimension of emotional attention, but significantly lower in emotional clarity and emotion regulation; aggressors showed differences only in emotion regulation, with significantly lower scores. With regard to empathy, victims showed less empathetic joy, a subdimension of affective empathy, which indicated that they are, at the moment, unable to feel happiness for others’ successes; aggressors obtained lower scores both in cognitive and affective empathy. These results underscore the importance of managing emotions in the main school violence roles in adolescent students and help us to understand differences between aggressors and victims in the managing of affect.