Why do some countries, regions and schools have more bullying than others? What socio-economic, socio-political and other larger contextual factors predict school bullying? These open questions inspired this study with 53.316 5th- and 9th-grade students (5% of the national student population in these grades), from 1,000 schools in Colombia. Students completed a national test of citizenship competencies, which included questions about bullying and about families, neighborhoods and their own socio-emotional competencies. We combined these data with community violence and socio-economic conditions of all Colombian municipalities, which allowed us to conduct multilevel analyses to identify municipality- and school-level variables predicting school bullying. Most variance was found at the school level. Higher levels of school bullying were related to more males in the schools, lower levels of empathy, more authoritarian and violent families, higher levels of community violence, better socio-economic conditions, hostile attributional biases and more beliefs supporting aggression. These results might reflect student, classroom and school contributions because student-level variables were aggregated at the school level. Although in small portions, violence from the decades-old-armed conflict among guerrillas, paramilitaries and governmental forces predicted school bullying at the municipal level for 5th graders. For 9th graders, inequality in land ownership predicted school bullying. Neither poverty, nor population density or homicide rates contributed to explaining bullying. These results may help us advance toward understanding how the larger context relates to school bullying, and what socio-emotional competencies may help us prevent the negative effects of a violent and unequal environment.

This study evaluated the extent to which fourth‐grade students (M age = 8.62) select and are influenced by their peers' aggressive and prosocial behavior and the extent to which intra‐individual social cognitions moderate these processes. Two waves of data were collected in the fall and spring of one academic year from children attending 18 New York City public elementary schools. Stochastic actor‐based social network analysis was used to evaluate whether participants modify their network or behavior in response to the behavior of their peers. Findings support an average main effect of peer influence of aggression, as well as an interaction indicating that participants with high levels of hostile attributional bias have higher odds of adopting the aggressive behavior of their peers.

It has become increasingly apparent that publishing research on child development from certain countries is especially challenging. These countries have been referred to collectively as the Majority World, the Global South, non‐WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic), or low‐ and middle‐income countries. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to these persistent challenges, and provide constructive recommendations to contribute to better representation of children from these countries in child development research. In this paper, we outline the history of publication bias in developmental science, and issues of generalization of research from these countries and hence where it ‘fits’ in terms of publishing. The importance of explaining context is highlighted, including for research on measurement child development outcomes, and attention is drawn to the vicious publication‐funding cycle that further exacerbates the challenges of publishing this research. Specific recommendations are made to assist child development journals achieve their stated goals of creating a more inclusive, equitable, diverse, and global field of child development.

Classrooms in Peace (Aulas en Paz) is an elementary school-based multicomponent program for prevention of aggression and promotion of peaceful relationships. Inspired by international programs and socio-emotional research, it includes (1) a classroom universal curriculum, (2) parent workshops and home visits to parents of the 10% most aggressive children, and (3) extracurricular peer groups of two aggressive and four prosocial children. Activities seek to promote socio-emotional competencies such as empathy, anger management, creative generation of alternatives, and assertiveness. A 2-year quasi-experimental evaluation was conducted with 1154 students from 55 classrooms of seven public schools located in neighborhoods with the presence of youth gangs, drug cartels, and high levels of community violence in two Colombian cities. Despite several implementation (e.g., about half of the activities were not implemented) and evaluation (e.g., randomization problems, large number of missing data, and changes between treatment and control groups) challenges, positive results were found in prosocial behavior and in reduction of aggressive behavior, according to teacher reports, and in assertiveness and reduction of verbal victimization, according to student reports. Furthermore, implementation cost (25 US dollars per student per year) was very low compared to other programs in developed countries. This study shows that the Classrooms in Peace program has an important potential to generate positive results and highlights the challenges of implementing and evaluating prevention programs in highly violent environments.

Exposure to neighborhood violence is an important risk factor for the social and emotional development of children and youth. Previous work recognizes that violence may affect children indirectly via secondhand exposure; yet, few studies have aimed to identify and quantify these effects, especially in settings like Colombia where youth is chronically exposed to violence. To address this gap in the literature, this article implements an empirical strategy where geographically specific and time-stamped data are leveraged to identify the effect of indirect exposure to homicides on fifth grade children's social and emotional outcomes. Sample participants (N = 5801) represent the fifth-grade population of boys and girls (50.7%) in two major urban areas in the country (Mage = 11.01, SD = 0.75). We hypothesize that the effects of exposure to neighborhood violence on children's social and emotional skills will be consistent and negative. The findings indicate a consistent negative effect of indirect exposure to homicides on children's emotional functioning (i.e., emotional regulation and empathy), as well as on the prevalence of avoidance behaviors. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, the results do not support effects on children's levels of aggressive behavior, nor on the beliefs and attitudes that justify the use of aggression in interpersonal relationships. The findings are discussed in light of predictions from social cognitive models and their implications for developmentally and trauma-informed interventions for youth.