The relation between defending, (dis)liking, and the classroom bullying norm: A cross-sectional social network approach in late childhood

Rambaran, Ashwin; Duijn, Marijtje van; Dijkstra, Jan Kornelis; Veenstra, René

doi:10.1177/01650254211029715

Cited by 14 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 74 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our study findings demonstrated that having friendships and classmates willing to help each other in the class, being fond of spending time together in class, and believing that one is accepted as an individual by classmates are associated with less likelihood for participation in fights multiple times and participation in bullying both once and multiple times. Friendships help students face problems by building their sense of belonging, self-esteem, and social skills [30] and defend them from bullying [31], highlighting the finding in our study that friendship among students in class and willingness to help each other is the predictor for less participation in fights multiple times and participation in bullying at least once. Participating in bullying and fighting affects everyone who is involved and witnesses it.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

The Association between Participation in Fights and Bullying and the Perception of School, Teachers, and Peers among School-Age Children in Serbia

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Participating in physical fighting and bullying can be a cause of severe injury and death among school-age children. Research evidence can support school and health actors’ efforts to improve school-age children’s development and health capacity for life. The study aims to assess the prevalence of school-age children’s participation in fights and bullying in Serbia, and to examine the relevance of students’ socio-demographic characteristics and perceptions of school and relations with other students and professors for participation in fights and bullying. A secondary analysis is also performed on the original data of the 2017 HBSC study, which was conducted on 3267 students in a nationally representative sample of primary and high schools in Serbia. We sought to investigate the relationship between eight socio-demographic characteristics and nine school-related perceptions, with two outcome variables: taking part in fights and taking part in bullying, examined by using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. The main results show that 50.8% of boys and 17.1% of girls have taken part in fights, while 17.7% boys and 10.4% of girls have taken part in bullying. Students who felt a large and very large burden of school obligations were 1.43 times more likely to participate in bullying at least once, while they were 1.38 and 2.12 times more likely to participate in multiple fights and 4.04, 1.24, and 2.78 times more likely to participate multiple times in bullying. Multiple participation in fights and in bullying is significantly negatively associated with female gender, younger age years, good and very good perception of family financial status and quality of life, and positive perceptions of school and relations they have with other students and professors. Fights among school-age children are significantly positively associated with living with relatives/legal guardians and poor quality of life. In conclusion, the prevalence of participating in at least one fight/bullying is higher than in multiple fights/bullying. These associations suggest a necessity to enhance the monitoring and control of peer behavior among school-age children. The findings of the study imply key enablers of protection, such as building relationships based on team spirit and work, friendly behavior, empathy, and help, which should be included in the value system of school and family activities in programs to combat fights and bullying in school-age children.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

The Association between Participation in Fights and Bullying and the Perception of School, Teachers, and Peers among School-Age Children in Serbia

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several experimental studies have shown that students conform to the popularity norm regarding health-risk behavior (Cohen & Prinstein, 2006), alcohol consumption (Teunissen et al, 2012), and prosociality (Choukas-Bradley et al, 2015). Popularity classroom norms are typically operationalized as the within-classroom correlation between a particular behavior and perceived popularity (e.g., Garandeau et al, 2022; Rambaran et al, 2022). An alternative for the correlation-based popularity norm is a prevalence-based popularity norm, where the average behavior of popular classmates is computed (Dijkstra et al, 2008; Menesini et al, 2015; Velásquez et al, 2021), or a network-based weighted norm, referring to a measure that gives more weight to the behavioral scores of students who hold a central position in the classroom network, based on the number of direct and indirect relationships (Jackson et al, 2015).…”

Section: Different Types Of Classroom Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the microfoundations of the link between classroom social norms and behavioral development

Veenstra

Lodder

2022

International Journal of Behavioral Development

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article focuses on the link between social norms and behavioral development as presented in research on norms regarding bullying and aggression. The aim is to present a conceptual framework for how classroom norms may explain children’s decisions to defend others or refrain from defending. Norms emerge from group consensus about what is appropriate in given social circumstances, and can also shape, constrain, and redirect behavior at the individual level. The study of norms has gained much attraction in peer relation research, and has turned attention to group-level processes, often defined at the classroom level, which create and sustain shared meanings that impact behavioral and social adjustment. Norm conformity, pluralistic ignorance, and power balance are presented as potential micro-level mechanisms for the link between classroom popularity (or rejection) norms and defending behavior. Directions for further research are discussed, including the need to assess and test the microfoundations directly, examine gender-specific versus common norms, focus on competing classroom norms, test developmental effects of norms, examine the impact of teachers on social norms, and pay attention to the influence of personal norms.

show abstract

“…Where it was argued that peer dynamics and hierarchies might differ across the different school settings, it is not unlikely that also within the same school setting the dynamics might differ, across classrooms, or grades. However, a clear-cut measure of peer hierarchy, dominance or classroom norms is not readily available and is a topic of study on its own (Rambaran, van Duijn, Dijkstra, & Veenstra, 2019b;Salmivalli, 2010).…”

Section: Implications Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability and change in student classroom composition and its impact on peer victimization.

Rambaran¹,

Duijn²,

Dijkstra³

et al. 2020

Journal of Educational Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although peer victimization in school mainly takes place between children in the same classroom or grade and bullying is generally seen as a group process, little is known about how stability and change in classroom composition affect peer victimization. Hence, this study addressed the following questions: (a) Are newcomers in the classroom more likely to become victims? (b) Does a stable classroom, where children generally have the same classmates over time, lead to less change in bully nominations? To address these questions, this article examined 3 waves of bully nominations in a sample of 3,254 children (50% boys; age 8 -12) in 31 elementary schools, displaying three types of schools: stable or unstable administrative or pedagogical multigrade. Both research questions were answered by longitudinal social network analyses of the school-wide networks. The meta-analyzed results of these analyses with small effect sizes showed that (a) although stable classrooms do not necessarily show less change in bully nominations than in unstable classrooms, victim-bully ties are more likely to develop among students in the same grade or same classroom and (b) newcomers were more likely to become victims, more so in unstable schools than in stable schools. Educational Impact and Implications StatementThis study contributes to the existing bullying literature by providing first insights into the formation and development of bullying relationships within the school context by examining changes in victim-bully networks in schools that do and do not combine classrooms or grades over the school years. The findings of this study suggest that school and classroom stability and change have a minor impact on the formation of victim-bully relationships between children. Bullying relationships were found to develop most easily between children in the same grade, more so in stable classrooms than in classrooms with changing classroom composition, with no clear evidence that newcomers are more at risk of becoming victimized. The formation and development of bullying relationships among students within the same grade was weakest in unstable pedagogical multigrade schools, after controlling for school size. These findings may be beneficial to schools that consistently deal with changing compositions in their student population and highlight that a context-specific approach may be necessary to tackle bullying in stable and unstable schools.

show abstract

The relation between defending, (dis)liking, and the classroom bullying norm: A cross-sectional social network approach in late childhood

Cited by 14 publications

References 74 publications

The Association between Participation in Fights and Bullying and the Perception of School, Teachers, and Peers among School-Age Children in Serbia

The Association between Participation in Fights and Bullying and the Perception of School, Teachers, and Peers among School-Age Children in Serbia

On the microfoundations of the link between classroom social norms and behavioral development

Stability and change in student classroom composition and its impact on peer victimization.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About