Wendy L. G. Hoglund

School functioning in early adolescence: Gender-linked responses to peer victimization

Research indicates that peer victimization contributes to poor school functioning in childhood and adolescence, yet the processes by which victimization interferes with school functioning are unclear. This study examined internalizing and externalizing problems as domain-specific mediators of the association between subtypes of peer victimization (relational, physical) and school functioning (engagement, achievement) with a cross-sectional sample of 337 early adolescents. School engagement was examined further as a proximal process that intervenes in the associations between internalizing and externalizing problems and achievement. Gender differences in these associations were assessed. As expected, internalizing problems showed stronger links with relational than with physical victimization and partially mediated the influence of both on engagement for girls but not boys. Externalizing problems partially mediated the influence of both subtypes of victimization on school functioning for girls and physical victimization for boys. Notably, engagement was a robust mediator of the contributions of internalizing problems and physical victimization to achievement for girls and externalizing problems to achievement for girls and boys. Findings also suggest that physical (but not relational) victimization partially mediates the link between internalizing and externalizing problems and school functioning.

The Effects of Peer Victimization and Physical Aggression on Changes in Internalizing From First to Third Grade

Three models of the prospective relations between child maladjustment and peer victimization are examined: (a) internalizing results directly from victimization, (b) internalizing leads to victimization, and (c) physical aggression fuels retaliatory victimization that leads to increases in internalizing over time. Data came from assessments of children at the beginning of Grade 1 (n = 432; average age = 6.3 years), with follow-ups at the end of Grades 1, 2, and 3. Most children showed low stable internalizing trajectories (73%); however, high stable and increasing curvilinear trajectories were evident for 7% and 20% of children, respectively. Findings suggest that childrens adjustment problems at entry to Grade 1 affect the course of their internalizing, in part, by setting the stage for peer victimization.

A School-Randomized Clinical Trial of an Integrated Social–Emotional Learning and Literacy Intervention: Impacts After 1 School Year

OBJECTIVE To report experimental impacts of a universal, integrated school-based intervention in social-emotional learning and literacy development on change over 1 school year in 3rd-grade childrens social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. METHOD This study employed a school-randomized, experimental design and included 942 3rd-grade children (49% boys; 45.6% Hispanic/Latino, 41.1% Black/African American, 4.7% non-Hispanic White, and 8.6% other racial/ethnic groups, including Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American) in 18 New York City public elementary schools. Data on childrens social-cognitive processes (e.g., hostile attribution biases), behavioral symptomatology (e.g., conduct problems), and literacy skills and academic achievement (e.g., reading achievement) were collected in the fall and spring of 1 school year. RESULTS There were main effects of the 4Rs Program after 1 year on only 2 of the 13 outcomes examined. These include childrens self-reports of hostile attributional biases (Cohens d = 0.20) and depression (d = 0.24). As expected based on program and developmental theory, there were impacts of the intervention for those children identified by teachers at baseline with the highest levels of aggression (d = 0.32-0.59) on 4 other outcomes: childrens self-reports of aggressive fantasies, teacher reports of academic skills, reading achievement scaled scores, and childrens attendance. CONCLUSIONS This report of effects of the 4Rs intervention on individual children across domains of functioning after 1 school year represents an important first step in establishing a better understanding of what is achievable by a schoolwide intervention such as the 4Rs in its earliest stages of unfolding. The first-year impacts, combined with our knowledge of sustained and expanded effects after a second year, provide evidence that this intervention may be initiating positive developmental cascades both in the general population of students and among those at highest behavioral risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

The context of ethnicity: peer victimization and adjustment problems in early adolescence

The current study bridges research on peer relational and physical victimization with research on ethnic victimization and situates this research in the context of ethnic diversity. Specifically, the authors investigate how ethnic, relational, and physical victimization relate to concurrent levels of depression/anxiety and physical aggression and assess individual and classroom ethnic differences in these associations. These associations are tested using data from a cross-sectional sample of Aboriginal, Asian, and Caucasian adolescents in Grades 6 and 7. Overall, ethnic, relational, and physical victimization were significantly intercorrelated and showed common and unique associations with depression/anxiety and physical aggression that differed modestly by ethnicity. Levels of classroom ethnic diversity differentially influenced some of the associations between ethnic (but not relational or physical) victimization and adjustment problems for Aboriginal and Asian adolescents.

Classroom risks and resources: Teacher burnout, classroom quality and children's adjustment in high needs elementary schools

The current paper presents two related sets of findings on the classroom context in high needs elementary schools. First, we investigated change over one school term in teacher burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) and classroom quality (emotional and instructional support, organization) and assessed the degree to which burnout and classroom quality co-varied over the term with each other and with aggregate externalizing behaviors (average child externalizing behaviors in the classroom). These analyses describe the classroom context in which the children are nested. Second, we examined change over one school term in childrens social adjustment (relationship quality with teachers and friends) and academic adjustment (school engagement, literacy skills) and assessed how adjustment co-varied over time with child externalizing behaviors and was predicted by teacher burnout, classroom quality and aggregate externalizing behaviors. These models were tested with a sample of low-income, ethnically diverse children in kindergarten to grade 3 and their teachers. The children and teachers were assessed three times over one school term. Personal accomplishment co-varied positively with overall classroom quality. Reciprocally, classroom organization co-varied positively with overall teacher burnout. Aggregate externalizing behaviors co-varied positively with depersonalization and negatively with personal accomplishment and overall classroom quality, including emotional support and organization. In turn, teacher burnout interacted with aggregate externalizing behaviors to predict change in child social and academic adjustment. Alternatively, classroom quality interacted with aggregate and child externalizing behaviors to predict change in child social and academic adjustment.

Reciprocating risks of peer problems and aggression for children's internalizing problems.

Three complementary models of how peer relationship problems (exclusion and victimization) and aggressive behaviors relate to prospective levels of internalizing problems are examined. The additive risks model proposes that peer problems and aggression cumulatively increase risks for internalizing problems. The reciprocal risks model hypothesizes that peer problems and aggression transact over time and mediate the effects of each other on prospective internalizing problems. Last, the internalizing risks model proposes that, in addition to aggressive behaviors, prior internalizing problems also provoke peer problems that, in turn, further elevate risks for prospective internalizing problems. Data came from a sample of 453 low-income, ethnically diverse children in kindergarten to Grade 3 who were assessed 3 times over 1 school term (in January, March and June). Findings supported the internalizing risks model. Four key pathways were found to increase risks for internalizing problems by the end of the school year; 2 of these routes were rooted in aggressive behaviors, and 3 paths operated indirectly via levels of peer problems in the spring. Children who were initially aggressive became excluded by peers by the spring, whereas children who initially showed more symptoms of depression and anxiety became victimized by peers by the spring. In turn, both peer exclusion and victimization increased prospective levels of internalizing problems by the end of the school year.

Maternal depressive symptoms during childhood and risky adolescent health behaviors

OBJECTIVE: Maternal depression is a risk factor for adolescent depression; however, the effect of childhood exposure to maternal depression on adolescent engagement in health risk behaviors (eg, substance use, delinquency) is unclear. METHODS: We examined the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms (child’s age 4–15) and engagement in health risk behaviors at age 16 to 17 by using data from 2910 mother–youth pairs in a nationally representative prospective Canadian cohort. Maternal depressive trajectories were estimated through finite mixture modeling, and multiple regression analyses examined the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and engagement in various health risk behaviors (linear regression) and age of debut of various behaviors (Cox regression). RESULTS: Five trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms were found: recurrent maternal symptoms, midchildhood exposure to maternal symptoms, adolescent exposure to maternal symptoms, mild maternal symptoms, and low symptoms. Adolescents exposed to maternal depressive symptoms during middle childhood were more likely to use common substances (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana), engage in violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior, and have an earlier debut ages of cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and hallucinogen use. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that exposure to maternal depressive symptoms, particularly in middle childhood, is associated with greater and earlier engagement in health risk behaviors.

Canadian Youths' Trajectories of Psychosocial Competencies through University: Academic and Romantic Affairs Matter.

The increasingly prolonged transition to adulthood has raised concerns about the nature and timing of growth in the attainment of important psychosocial competencies in young people. Changes over time in self-reported competencies (work orientation, identity, intimacy) were examined in 198 Canadians, who were followed for the first 4 years of university. Work orientation and intimacy positively contributed to later levels of identity, and identity reciprocally contributed to later levels of work orientation. Work orientation decreased and intimacy increased in the first 2 years of university but work orientation rose and intimacy declined in the next 2 years. Identity grew across time but this trend disappeared when covariates were included. Academic performance and dating were covariates of change in competencies. Mechanisms for the observed patterns and their implications are discussed.

Prediction and Prevention of Peer Victimization in Early Elementary School

While all children engage in physical aggression (e.g., pushing and hitting) and relational aggression (e.g., spreading rumors and social exclusion), past research suggests that the former is more prevalent among boys, and the latter is typically more frequent among girls (Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, & Kuakiainen, 1992; Cairns, Cairns, Neckerman, Ferguson, & Gariepy, 1989; Crick, 1997; Crick & Grotpeter,1995; Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, & Peltonen, 1988; Owens, 1996; Smith & Sharp, 1994). Furthermore, the fact that children often interact with same-sex peers suggests these differences are also reflected in their victimization experiences, with boys generally reporting more physical and girls reporting more relational victimization (Crick et al., 2001). However, few gender differences in levels of physical victimization are evident for boys and girls in early school grades (Kochenderfer & Ladd, 1997). Moreover, while some studies suggest that boys are more likely to experience victimization than girls (e.g., Cleary, 2000; Dhami, Leadbeater, Hoglund, & Boone, 2003; Olweus, 1994; Whitney & Smith, 1993), others have found no significant gender differences in victimization of third to sixth graders (Crick & Grotpeter, 1996) and adolescents (Paquette & Underwood, 1999). These mixed findings suggest that we need to look beyond gender per se for explanations of gender differences that have been observed in risks for aggression and victimization.

Do Teacher–Child Relationship and Friendship Quality Matter for Children's School Engagement and Academic Skills?

Abstract This study examined three competing models assessing the directional associations between the quality of childrens relationships with teachers and friends (i.e., closeness and conflict) and their emotional and behavioral school engagement (i.e., the relationship-driven, engagement-driven, and transactional models). The additive contributions of relationship quality and school engagement to prospective academic skills and age-related differences in these associations were also assessed. Models were tested using autoregressive, cross-lagged path analyses. Participants were 461 low-income, ethnically diverse children from kindergarten to Grade 3, who were assessed three times in one school term. In support of the relationship-driven model, closeness with friends and conflict with teachers and friends predicted prospective emotional engagement. In support of the transactional model, friendship closeness and teacher–child and friendship conflict transacted with behavioral engagement over the school term. Higher emotional engagement and, unexpectedly, friendship conflict predicted higher prospective academic skills. Associations between relationship closeness and behavioral engagement were significant for older children only.