Evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in US Urban Middle Schools Using a Multiple Baseline Experimental Design.

We evaluated the impact of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) in an 8-year study in urban middle schools that served primarily African American students living in low-income areas. Participants included 2755 students and 242 teachers. We evaluated the OBPP with a multiple-baseline experimental design where the order and intervention start time was randomly assigned for each school. We assessed the frequency of bullying behaviors and experiences including physical, relational, and verbal aggression and victimization using teacher ratings of student behavior and student-reported data, as well as cyber aggression and victimization and school climate measures using student-reported data. For teacher ratings of student behavior, we found significant main effects across all subtypes of aggression and victimization, with some variability in the timing of effects. The pattern of findings showed delayed intervention effects for boys and a weaker impact of the OBPP on 6th graders. We found main effects for student-reported cyber aggression and victimization, relational aggression, and a composite of physical, verbal, and relational victimization. Decreases in victimization emerged in the 1st or 2nd year of intervention, and reductions in aggression emerged during the 3rd year. Across all findings, once intervention effects emerged, they remained significant in subsequent intervention years. The OBPP resulted in significant decreases in student- and teacher-reported aggression and victimization. However, this intervention had limited impact on general areas of school climate including teacher support, positive peer interactions, and school safety. Overall, the findings offer important prevention and research implications.

A Latent Class Analysis of Early Adolescent Peer and Dating Violence: Associations With Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety.

Violence within peer and dating contexts is prevalent among early adolescents. Youth may be victims and/or aggressors and be involved in violence across multiple contexts, resulting in negative outcomes. This study identified patterns of perpetration and victimization for peer and dating violence, using a latent class analysis (LCA), and examined how different patterns of engaging in or experiencing violence among early adolescents were associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Participants included a sample of 508 racially and ethnically diverse youth (51% male) who had dated in the past 3 months. Youth were in the seventh grade within 37 schools and were primarily from economically disadvantaged communities across four sites in the United States. LCA identified three classes: (a) a low involvement in violence class, (b) a peer aggression and peer victimization class, and (c) a peer and dating violence class. Youth involved with multiple forms of violence displayed significantly higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms than those with low involvement in violence. Study findings revealed the importance of understanding how peer and dating violence co-occur, and how different patterns of aggression and victimization were related to internalizing symptoms. Prevention efforts should address the intersection of victimization and perpetration in peer and dating contexts in potentially reducing internalizing symptoms among early adolescents.

The Relationship between Health Disparities, Psychosocial Functioning and Health Outcomes in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant Populations: Recommendations for Clinical Care.

Not only do racial and ethnic minority children and adolescents with chronic illness experience disparities in health status and health outcomes, they also experience significant healthcare disparities, including differences in healthcare coverage, access to care, and quality of care. It is well known that the interaction between psychosocial functioning, health behaviors and ethnic and racial disparities, ultimately leads to worse health and psychosocial outcomes in pediatric and AYA chronic illness patient populations, including increased rates of morbidity and mortality. Investigating the impact of racial and ethnic factors on health outcomes, and strategies for reducing these disparities, is of the utmost importance, specifically in life-threatening conditions like cancer and sickle cell disease. This commentary underscores the relative importance of identifying factors that could reduce disparities between minority and non-minority populations. This present paper will focus on the dynamic relationships between health disparities, psychosocial factors and health outcomes within pediatric cancer, sickle cell disease and bone marrow transplant populations, and will offer recommendations for healthcare professionals working with these vulnerable patient populations. The primary goal of this commentary is to provide recommendations for enhancing cultural competency and humility for those working with highly vulnerable patient populations.

Longitudinal Relations between Beliefs Supporting Aggression,Anger Regulation, and Dating Aggression among Early Adolescents.

Dating aggression occurs frequently in early to mid-adolescence and has negative repercussions for psychosocial adjustment and physical health. The patterns of behavior learned during this developmental timeframe may persist in future dating relationships, underscoring the need to identify risk factors for this outcome. The current study examined longitudinal relations between beliefs supporting aggression, anger regulation, and dating aggression. Participants were 176 middle school students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade (50 % female; 82 % African American). No direct effects were found between beliefs supporting reactive or proactive aggression and dating aggression. Beliefs supporting reactive aggression predicted increased rates of anger dysregulation, and beliefs supporting proactive aggression led to subsequent increases in anger inhibition. Anger dysregulation and inhibition were associated with higher frequencies of dating aggression. An indirect effect was found for the relation between beliefs supporting reactive aggression and dating aggression via anger dysregulation. Another indirect effect emerged for the relation between beliefs supporting proactive aggression and dating aggression through anger inhibition. The study's findings suggested that beliefs supporting proactive and reactive aggression were differentially related to emotion regulation processes, and identified anger dysregulation and inhibition as risk factors for dating aggression among adolescents.