Mindfulness, impulsivity, and moral disengagement as parameters of bullying and victimization at school.

The aim of the present study was to examine the existing association between mindfulness, impulsivity, moral disengagement, and bullying experiences at school. Longitudinal data were collected in three points in time (T1, T2, T3) with 6 months interval between them. Participants were 558 adolescents attending secondary schools in Cyprus, with their ages ranging from 14 to 17 years (M = 15.3; standard deviation = 0.69). Through structural equation modeling, it was found that mindfulness at T1 had a significant negative effect on both impulsivity and moral disengagement at T2 and these, in turn, had a positive effect on bullying and victimization at T3. Thus, mindfulness had an indirect effect on both bullying and victimization, fully mediated by impulsivity and moral disengagement.

Cultural value orientation and authoritarian parenting as parameters of bullying and victimization at school.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the existing association between cultural value orientation, authoritarian parenting, and bullying and victimization at school. The participants (N = 231) were early adolescents, randomly selected from 11 different schools in urban and rural areas of Cyprus. Participants completed self reports measuring cultural value orientation, authoritarian parenting, bullying, and victimization. These instruments were the following: the cultural value scale (CVS), the parental authority questionnaire (PAQ), and the revised bullying and victimization questionnaire (BVQ-R). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine mediation effects. It was found that vertical individualism acted as a mediator between authoritarian parenting and bullying. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between authoritarian parenting and the vertical dimensions of both cultural value orientations (individualism and collectivism), but not with the horizontal dimensions of either cultural orientation. Further, authoritarian parenting was also positively associated with bullying and victimization at school. The main contribution of the present study is the finding that vertical individualism significantly mediates the relationship between authoritarian parental style and bullying propensity.

Bullying and victimization at school: the role of mothers.

BACKGROUND: Social learning literature is used in order to describe the contextual parameters of peer aggression, and specifically bullying and victimization. AIM: The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of maternal characteristics on their child's victimization or bullying experience at school. SAMPLE: The participants were 252 elementary school students (mean age 11.5 years) and their mothers. METHOD: A theoretically driven model was developed and its ability to fit the data was tested. The main factors included in the model were the following: parental style as perceived by the child, self-reported parental involvement, the mother's emotional state and the degree of victimization experienced by the child at school. RESULTS: Through confirmatory factor analysis, it was shown that maternal responsiveness was positively related to the child's adjustment at school (i.e. achievement and social adaptation), while the same factor was negatively related to school aggression (bullying and disrupting behaviour). Overprotective mothering was associated with high degrees of victimization experienced by the child, whereas maternal depressiveness was related to both victimization and bullying behaviour on the part of the child. CONCLUSIONS: Parents should be included in the design of intervention plans aiming at the elimination of bullying at school.