The goal of this study was to identify meaningful groups of sixth graders with common characteristics based on teacher ratings of assets and maladaptive behaviors, describe dropout rates for each group, and examine the validity of these groups using students' self-reports. The sample consisted of racially diverse students (n = 675) attending sixth grade in public schools in Northeast Georgia. The majority of the sample was randomly selected; a smaller group was identified by teachers as high risk for aggression. Based on teacher ratings of externalizing behaviors, internalizing problems, academic skills, leadership, and social assets, latent profile analysis yielded 7 classes that can be displayed along a continuum: Well-Adapted, Average, Average-Social Skills Deficit, Internalizing, Externalizing, Disruptive Behavior with School Problems, and Severe Problems. Dropout rate was lowest for the Well-adapted class (4%) and highest for the Severe Problems class (58%). However, students in the Average-Social Skills Deficit class did not follow the continuum, with a large proportion of students who abandoned high school (29%). The proportion of students identified by teachers as high in aggression consistently increased across the continuum from none in the Well-Adapted class to 84% in the Severe Problems class. Students' self-reports were generally consistent with the latent profile classes. Students in the Well-Adapted class reported low aggression, drug use, and delinquency, and high life satisfaction; self-reports went in the opposite direction for the Disruptive Behaviors with School Problems class. Results highlight the importance of early interventions to improve academic performance, reduce externalizing behaviors, and enhance social assets.

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The present study sought to examine the efficacy of an abbreviated version of the Bully Busters program, a psychoeducationally based group intervention and prevention program designed to increase teacher's knowledge and use of bullying intervention skills, as well as teacher self-efficacy in intervening with bullying so as to subsequently effect change in the school climate. Teacher-participants attended seven group sessions designed to provide them with exposure to the didactics of the model, as well as to engage them in active learning, role-playing, and cognitive and emotional processing of their experiences of the impact of bullying behaviors on their teaching efficacy as well as the school climate. Materials and experiences from these groups were then taken to the classroom and implemented with the student-participants vis-a `-vis classroom exercises. The findings suggest that an abbreviated group-based version of the Bully Busters program can have positive effect on teacher reports of efficacy in intervening with bullying behaviors.