Transactional links between adolescents’ and friends’ victimization during the first two years of secondary school: The mediating role of likeability and friendship involvement

The goals of this study were to examine to what extent lower likeability at the group level and lower friendship involvement can explain the bidirectional links between adolescents’ own and their friends’ victimization over time. We tested these processes by applying a cross‐lagged path model to a sample of 621 adolescents. Data were collected at four time points over the two first years of secondary school. Participants were asked to identify same grade friends within their school; classroom peer nominations were used to assess participants’ likeability as well as participants’ and friends’ level of peer victimization. Results showed bidirectional associations between adolescents’ own and their friends’ victimization by peers within the first year of secondary school. Moreover, the relation between adolescents’ own victimization at the end of the first year and their friends’ victimization next year was mediated by decreased adolescents’ likeability at the group level. Inversely, their friends’ victimization at the end of the first year predicted lower levels of adolescents’ own likeability over time, which in turn predicted adolescents’ own subsequent levels of victimization. Friends’ victimization also predicted adolescents’ lower friendship involvement during the first year, which in turn predicted decreased likeability, and ultimately higher levels of victimization.     

The people or the place? An analysis of the protective factors of hate crime in multiethnic neighbourhoods in Australia

Hate crime creates significant problems for individual victims and the social fabric of a community more broadly. Victimisation is most likely to occur around the victim's own neighbourhood, yet few studies examine how the neighbourhood context influences hate crime. This study uses data from the Australian Community Capacity Study involving 4,400 participants in 148 neighbourhoods in Brisbane. It examines whether it is characteristics of place (such as attitudes toward diversity, place attachment and social cohesion) that reduce hate crime, or whether it is interactions with fellow residents (such as frequency of neighbourly exchanges, number of friends, and number of acquaintances in the neighbourhood) that shelter residents from hate crime. Results demonstrate that characteristics of a place provide important protective factors against hate crime in the neighbourhood, rather than the number of social‐interactions between residents.     

Does the desire to conform to peers moderate links between popularity and indirect victimization in early adolescence?

This study of 426 Canadian early adolescents (M_age = 12.52; 53% girls) investigated whether associations between popularity and indirect victimization (i.e., reputational victimization, exclusion) varied as a function of gender and the desire to conform to characteristics and competencies that are valued within the peer group (i.e., peer conformity goals). Regression analyses revealed popularity was uniquely and positively associated with reputational victimization, but was not significantly related to exclusion after accounting for the effects of meanness and likeability. The associations between popularity and indirect victimization were moderated by peer conformity goals and gender. The results indicated that popular girls with high peer conformity goals experienced more reputational victimization and exclusion than popular girls with low peer conformity goals. However, popular boys with high peer conformity goals experienced less exclusion than popular boys with low peer conformity goals. The findings suggest that peer conformity goals carry with them some risks for popular girls, but may serve a protective function for popular boys.     

Gender‐specific or Common Classroom Norms? Examining the Contextual Moderators of the Risk for Victimization

We tested whether gender‐specific vs. common classroom norms were more powerful moderators of the association between a risk factor (rejection) and peer victimization among girls and boys. The participants were 1220 elementary schoolchildren from grades 4–6 (with 10–13 years of age). We compared different multilevel models including combined vs. separate regressions for boys and girls, as well as the effects of norms of the whole class, same‐sex classmates, and cross‐sex classmates. Among girls, the association between rejection and victimization was strongest in classes where bullying behavior was common, and anti‐bullying attitudes were rare among girls. Among boys, the strength of the slope of victimization on rejection could not be explained by either common or gender‐specific classroom norms, but boys' level of bullying behavior was related to overall classroom level of victimization. The findings suggest that contextual factors may contribute to victimization especially among high‐risk girls. The importance of exploring multiple levels of influence on children's social development is discussed.     

Stigma of ink: Tattoo attitudes among college students

We test a structural equations model of stigma against tattooed persons and attitudes toward future tattoos among 195 tattooed and 257 non-tattooed college students. Having tattooed friends and family members undermines stigma against tattooed persons while beliefs about negative side effects of tattooing reinforces stigma assignment. The variables above and the respondent having a tattoo predict attitude toward future tattoos. We test a second model, stigma victimization, drawing on data from the 195 tattooed respondents. While greater tattoo abundance results in greater stigma victimization, respondents with more tattoos also report a greater commitment to their current tattoos and less desire for removal. We discuss results using attitude theory, stigma theory, and the contact theory of prejudice.     

The Role of Perceived Friendship Self‐efficacy as a Protective Factor against the Negative Effects of Social Victimization

This study examined perceived friendship self‐efficacy as a protective factor against the negative effects associated with social victimization in adolescents. The sample consisted of 1218 participants (557 males, age range 12–17 years). Perceived friendship self‐efficacy was associated with lower internalizing scores irrespective of adolescents' social victimization level and with lower externalizing scores at low, but not high, levels of social victimization. Furthermore, the relationship between perceived friendship self‐efficacy and all forms of adjustment did not differ between boys and girls, or between adolescents in both reciprocated and unilateral very best friendships. The role of perceived friendship self‐efficacy as a protective factor amenable to intervention in social bullying at school is discussed.     

Homophobic Name‐calling,Peer‐groups,and Masculinity: The Socialization of Homophobic Behavior in Adolescents

Social network analysis and multilevel modeling were used to examine the formation of homophobic name‐calling behavior in adolescents. Specifically, peer group contextual and socialization effects on homophobic name‐calling as well as the influence of masculinity attitudes, general bullying perpetration, and victimization were tested. Participants included 493 fifth‐ through eighth‐grade students from two middle schools. Results indicated that peer groups play an important role in the formation of homophobic name‐calling. Additionally, students who were victims of homophobic name‐calling over time increased their own perpetration of homophobic name‐calling. Non‐homophobic bullying was also related to homophobic name‐calling, but only for male peer groups. And finally, the role of masculinity attitudes was shown to be complex, as peer group masculinity attitudes were significantly predictive of an individual's homophobic perpetration; however, this effect did not remain significant over time. Results suggest that homophobic name‐calling during early adolescence is strongly influenced by peers and rooted in gender and masculinity.     

Discrimination and Victimization: Parade for Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender (LGBT) Pride,in Chile

This article describes the population participating in the LGBT Pride Parade in Santiago, Chile, from discrimination and victimization standpoints. The sample consisted of 488 subjects older than 18 years (M = 25.1), who were interviewed during the 2007 event. For this purpose, a questionnaire from the Latin American Centre of Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM) was adapted and administered. Approximately 35% of respondents reported having experimented school, religious, or neighborhood discrimination. The more discriminated are transgender people. Approximately three fourths of respondents reported experiencing ridicule and almost 60% reported experiencing insults or threats. Transgender were significantly more likely than gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals to experience discrimination or victimization events. Finally, the parade acquired an important social and political character in the context of a clearly homophobic society.     

Dissolving borders: Reframing risk,delinquent peers,and youth violence

Although “association with delinquent peers” is commonly identified as “a risk factor for youth violence,” this framework leads us to blame individuals and ignore the complex lives of youth who face state, symbolic, and interpersonal violence. This study is based on interviews with young adults about their adolescence in a low-income immigrant gateway neighborhood of Oakland, California. Most of the interviewees have peer networks that are racially/ethnically diverse and also include both delinquent and conforming peers. We show that having these “doubly diverse” friendship networks helps youth move through their neighborhood safely and feel anchored to their community even when they leave to attend college. Even successful youth in our study do not erect borders between themselves and “delinquent peers.” It is easy to assign blame to youth for their friendships, their violent behavior, their lack of education, their unstable and low-paying jobs, but this calculus ignores both the structural factors that constrain youth choices and the benefits that seem to be linked to diverse friendships, even with delinquent peers. Growing up in a site of global capital accumulation and disinvestment in the era of neoliberalism, our interviewees challenge us to reframe risk.     

Work-related stress in the UK: a new, ‘Management Standards’ approach

Abstract

Workplace victimization has recently emerged as an important topic in occupational health psychology. One of the major limitations of this research is that it generally employs cross-sectional designs. The current study, however, used a 13-month two-wave prospective design to examine the relationship between target personality and workplace interpersonal conflict in a sample of 166 non-faculty employees at a Midwestern university in the United States. Results suggested that victims' positive affectivity, negative affectivity, and core self-evaluations were associated with interpersonal conflict. Furthermore, employee personality was related to subsequent interpersonal conflict from supervisors even after initial levels of interpersonal conflict were controlled. Analyses further suggested that target negative affectivity might be an especially strong predictor of interpersonal conflict. Consistent with past theorizing, we found evidence that initial interpersonal conflict with co-workers can result in subsequent interpersonal conflict with supervisors. We conclude with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of our findings.