Examining the Link Between Implementation Fidelity, Quality, and Effectiveness of Teacher-Delivered Anti-Bullying Interventions in a Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study examined the relation between both implementation fidelity and quality and the outcomes of two different anti-bullying interventions targeting distinct processes involved in bullying: moral disengagement and social norms. In total, 34 French-speaking Belgian teachers from six elementary schools were trained to deliver either the moral disengagement or the social norms intervention to their Grade 4-6 students (N = 747, 50.4% boys) in a randomized controlled trial. Students reported their moral disengagement, perceived injunctive class norm toward bullying, and bullying behaviors in the fall and spring of the 2018-2019 school year. Teachers' implementation fidelity and quality were assessed through direct observation in each class by two independent raters with a satisfying interrater reliability. A multiplicative moderated mediation model using latent change scores revealed that both greater fidelity and quality amplified students' decrease in moral disengagement, which was accompanied by a decrease in bullying. Importantly, when quality was sufficient, fidelity did not matter. However, higher fidelity could compensate for a lack of quality. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant change in students' perceptions of the class injunctive norm, even under ideal implementation conditions. Alternative mediators should thus be considered. Because implementation by teachers inevitably fluctuates, anti-bullying program components should be evaluated under various implementation conditions to determine their cost-effectiveness ratio and to gain insights into how anti-bullying programs work.

Saliva testing among teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Effects on health concerns, well-being, and precautionary behavior.

RATIONALE: At the start of 2021, several SARS-CoV-2 cluster outbreaks in schools threatened in-person education and created a fairly chaotic and frightening environment for school personnel. To keep the schools open while preventing COVID-19 outbreaks, intensive diagnostic testing in teachers and school personnel was strongly recommended but missing at the time. OBJECTIVES: A project was launched in Belgian schools to weekly analyze the morning saliva of school personnel using PCR-testing to detect and prevent COVID-19 positive cases. In this quasi-experimental study, we aimed to examine whether the implementation of this saliva testing project impacted school personnel's pandemic-related health concerns, well-being, and adherence to the health-protective measures, contrasting experimental with control schools. METHODS: The data were collected during the third wave (Alpha-wave, February-March 2021) of the pandemic. The sample consisted of 435 participants from 34 different schools across Flanders (Belgium) (78.8% female; M age = 43.87 years, range = 21-67) of which 82% participated in the weekly saliva tests (i.e., experimental group) and 18% took part in the control group. RESULTS: Results from a series of linear mixed regression models showed that saliva testing buffered against an increase in health concerns among tested school personnel but did not affect participants' general well-being. Slight declines in adherence to the health-protective behaviors were observed, yet this was only the case for participants who felt less supported by their school principal. High degrees of principals' support also fostered the sharpest decreases in school staff's pandemic-related health concerns. CONCLUSIONS: When keeping the schools open in unstable pandemic times, weekly saliva testing is a promising strategy to prevent cluster outbreaks while simultaneously safeguarding health concerns among school personnel. School principals appear to play a critical role in the implementation of saliva testing to secure positive effects.

The effectiveness of moral disengagement and social norms as anti-bullying components: A randomized controlled trial.

This three-armed randomized controlled trial examined how moral disengagement and social norms account for change in bullying behavior and their potential as targets of anti-bullying components within separate interventions among 1200 French-speaking Belgian elementary students (48% boys, 9-12 year-olds, 57 classes, nine schools) during 2018-2019 (no ethnicity data available). Mediation analysis revealed that students' moral disengagement successfully decreased (ß = -.46), which, in turn, reduced both bullying (ß = .33) and outsider behaviors (ß = .20), and increased defending (ß = -.10). Intervening on social norms decreased bullying (ß = -.18), but not through the perceived injunctive class norm as intended. Guidelines to open the "black box" of anti-bullying programs and determine the cost-effectiveness ratio of their components are provided.

Validation of the French version of the moral disengagement in bullying scale: Testing Bandura's conceptual model.

Although Bandura conceptualized moral disengagement as a global dimension encompassing a set of mechanisms, the validated factorial structures of the existing scales have not fully matched the conceptual model so far. The present study attempts to narrow the gap between the moral disengagement conceptual model and its measurement tools by testing five factorial structures based both on theory and previous empirical work. A sample of 1107 pupils from Grades 4 to 6 completed the French version of the Moral Disengagement in Bullying Scale (Fr-MDBS). Confirmatory factorial analyses revealed that a second-order factor structure, congruent with the conceptual model, was better than a single-factor and as good as a first-order multi-factorial structure. Results also supported both construct validity (gender comparison) and predictive validity of the scale. Moral disengagement mechanisms were associated with self- and peer-reported bullying and victimization, defender, and outsider behaviors. Euphemistic labeling, diffusion of responsibility, and distorting consequences were also related to bullying whereas moral justification and victim attribution were related to both bullying and victimization. Euphemistic labeling, diffusion of responsibility, distorting consequences, and victim attribution were negatively associated with defender behavior and positively related to outsider behavior. Advantageous comparison was not related to any of the examined variables. The Fr-MDBS seems to be a useful assessment tool to validly examine either the mechanisms or the global dimension of moral disengagement.

Challenging the "'Mean Kid"' Perception: Boys' and Girls' Profiles of Peer Victimization and Aggression from 4th to 10th Grades.

Student involvement in peer aggression is assumed to include the uninvolved, victims, aggressors, and victim-aggressor groups. Yet, evidence supporting this four-group configuration is equivocal. Although most studies report the four groups, several of the aggressor groups could have been labeled as moderate victim-aggressors. This study first reviews studies identifying subgroups of students involved in verbal, relational, and physical aggression. The study then assesses students' perceived involvement in elementary (n = 2,071; Grades 4-6) and secondary school (n = 1,832; Grades 7-10), as well as the associations with outcomes (school belonging, depressive thoughts, and perceived school violence). Latent profile analysis identified three profiles (uninvolved, victim-only, and victim-aggressor) across all grades and genders. In primary school, the uninvolved, victim, and victim-aggressor respectively included 54.56%, 37.51%, and 7.83% of the girls, and 44.23%, 31.92%, and 23.85% of the boys. In secondary school, the uninvolved, victim, and victim-aggressor respectively included 80.16%, 14.93% and 4.91% of the girls, and 64.31%, 22.95% and 12.74% of the boys. Victims and victim-aggressors reported poorer adjustment than uninvolved students. Victims and victim-aggressors reported lower levels of school belonging and higher levels of depressive thoughts than uninvolved students. Also, victim-aggressors perceived more violence in their school than victims and uninvolved students, and victims perceived more violence than uninvolved students. These findings question the existence of an aggressor-only profile, at least, according to student perception, suggesting the need for a new perspective when intervening with students involved in peer aggression.

Understanding behavioural engagement and achievement: The roles of teaching practices and student sense of competence and task value.

BACKGROUND: Different teaching practices, such as autonomy support and structure, provide students with a positive learning context supporting their engagement, which can operate through their underlying motivation, including sense of competence and task value. AIMS: This study aims at investigating the best configuration (unique or synergistic) between autonomy support and structure to support student behavioural engagement, including compliance, participation, and misbehaviour, and reading achievement. A second objective is to assess students' sense of competence and task value as mediators linking teaching practices to student engagement and achievement. SAMPLE: The samples included 1,666 7th-grade students and their 85 teachers. Students answered questionnaires and tests at the beginning and the end of the school year. METHODS: Students' perceptions of the use of autonomy support and structure by their Language Arts teacher were aggregated at the classroom level. Students rated their sense of competence and task value in Language Arts class. Twice during the school year, they also reported three facets of their behavioural engagement (compliance, participation, and misbehaviour) and answered a reading comprehension test. Multilevel path analyses using Mplus7 allowed accounting for the nested structure of data. RESULTS: Student sense of competence mediated the association of student classroom-aggregated perceptions of teacher structure and autonomy support with self-reported participation in the classroom. Task value mediated the association between both teaching practices and student misbehaviour and compliance, as reported by students. Sense of competence was directly associated with later reading achievement, but the indirect effect of teaching practices was not significant. We found no significant interaction (synergistic effect) between teacher autonomy support and structure. CONCLUSION: Student classroom-aggregated perception of teacher autonomy support and structure is important to nurture behavioural engagement. However, we found no extra benefit of combining these two dimensions of teaching practices. The processes linking these teaching practices to the three facets of student behavioural engagement were different. As such, to support the various aspects of student engagement, the actions of teachers, as reported by their students, should tap into the mechanisms that are most strongly related to each type of behaviour.

The Delicate Balance to Adjustment: A Qualitative Approach of Student's Transition to the First Year at University.

First year experience in higher education has been extensively investigated in the literature. Yet, two limitations can be identified out of the literature. The majority of the studies focused on single factor analysis, restraining the multifactorial understanding of adjustment's determinants. Moreover, the temporal unfolding of the first year at the university has mainly been disregarded, limiting the dynamic framing of adjustment process. To overcome these limitations, the current study used a longitudinal qualitative design in order to grasp the dynamic complexity of adjustment process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in two steps with 17 freshmen from Science department. The aims were to unfold the constructs at play in student's adjustment process and the dynamic interplay between them over time. The analyses were grounded into Nicholson's theoretical framework of transition cycle and the material was analyzed through thematic and sequential analysis. Four themes (readiness, reaching personal drives, fighting an overwhelming program and becoming a self-regulated learner) and four different events (starting up, click, exhaustion and deficiencies accumulation) were identified in the material disclosing the dynamic nature of adjustment process. An overall reflection on the findings is proposed in the conclusion.

Witnessing violence in early secondary school predicts subsequent student impairment.

BACKGROUND: Past research suggests that adolescents who witness violence are at risk of adjustment problems. However, few studies have implemented a longitudinal design and have accounted for direct experiences of victimisation and other major confounders. This prospective study examines the relationship between witnessing school violence and subsequent impairment and whether such associations depend on the kind of violence witnessed. METHODS: 3936 adolescents from Quebec (Canada) were followed from ages 12 through 15 years. Linear regression tested associations between witnessing school violence at age 13 and subsequent antisocial behaviour (drug use, delinquency), emotional distress (social anxiety, depressive symptoms) and academic adjustment (school achievement, engagement) at age 15. We compared the relative contribution of differing forms of witnessing school violence versus being victimised directly. RESULTS: General school violence predicted later impairment. The adjusted associations between indirectly experiencing violence as a bystander and subsequent impairment were comparable to those of direct victimisation. Witnessing covert and major violence was associated with drug use and delinquency. Witnessing minor violence was associated with increases in drug use, social anxiety, depressive symptoms and decreases in school engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Almost all students witnessed school violence, which predicted impairment. Witnessing violence was associated with risk of subsequent adjustment problems 2 years later. Directly experienced victimisation showed a comparable magnitude of risk. This suggests that when it comes to symptoms of conduct disorder, witnessing violence might have the same impact as experiencing it directly. Witnessing earlier covert and major violence predicted social impairment whereas minor violence predicted psychological and academic impairment.

Peer victimization and school disaffection: exploring the moderation effect of social support and the mediation effect of depression.

BACKGROUND: Peer victimization is associated with increased internalizing problems and reduced school adjustment. Research into the main effect and the buffering effect of social support on these internalizing problems has produced inconsistent findings, and none has tested the buffering effect of social support on school adjustment. Moreover, recent studies have underlined the importance of taking various sources of social support into account. AIMS: This study aims to test the relationships between peer victimization and school disaffection, the moderation effect of parental, peer and teacher social support, and the mediation effect of depression. SAMPLE: Four hundred seventh and eighth graders participated in this study. METHOD: Students filled out a questionnaire assessing peer victimization, depression, academic self-efficacy, school disaffection, and perceived social support from parents, peers, and teachers. RESULTS: Peer victimization was negatively associated with self-efficacy and positively associated with school disaffection. Regression analyses showed a main negative effect of social support (especially teacher support) on depression and school disaffection and a positive effect on self-efficacy. No significant interactions emerged between victimization and social support or between sources of social support. Path analyses indicated that the effects of victimization on self-efficacy and school disaffection were fully mediated by depression, but that the effects of social support are partially independent of depression. Multigroup analyses indicated that these relationships were parallel among boys and girls. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study are consistent with the main effect model of social support. They also highlight the importance of teacher support for school adjustment.

School violence and teacher professional disengagement.

BACKGROUND: Most studies of school violence have focused on students. Consequently, precursors and consequences of violence experienced by teachers are less well documented. Previous research indicates that (a) verbal victimization, student misbehaviour and perceived violence at school impair teacher emotional well-being, (b) support from principal and colleagues reduces these difficulties and fosters well-being, (c) well-being impacts on professional involvement. However, it is still not clear how those variables relate to each other. AIMS: To test and compare - through structural equation modelling - two models of the relationships between perceived school support, exposure to school violence, subjective well-being and professional disengagement. To test - through multigroup analysis - the buffering effect of school support between school violence and well-being. SAMPLE: Participants in this study were 487 French-speaking teachers (57% female) randomly selected from 24 secondary schools in Belgium. METHOD: Participants completed a questionnaire on school leadership, relationships with colleagues, verbal victimization, students' misbehaviour, perceived violence, depression, somatization, anxiety and professional disengagement. RESULTS: The results support a model in which perceived school support has a direct effect on exposure to school violence, subjective well-being and professional disengagement, while the effect of school violence on disengagement is totally mediated by well-being. No evidence of a moderating effect of school support was found. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the negative emotional impact of some forms of school violence could be an important factor in a teacher's intention to leave, and that school support could be even more important for both teacher emotional well-being and professional disengagement.