Early co-occurrence of peer victimization and aggression.

An accelerated longitudinal research design was used to examine heterogeneity in the developmental co-occurrence of peer relational victimization and aggression and of peer overt victimization and aggression from age 4.5 to 10.5 years. Data were gathered from four cohorts of children in kindergarten to Grade 3 (N = 503) on six occasions across 2 years. Psychopathology, peer, and social-cognitive factors were examined as predictors of the joint trajectories. Sequential process latent growth mixture models identified four distinct subgroups for the relational trajectories (co-occurring increasing aggression, co-occurring increasing victimization, high chronic victimization, typical low risk) and four distinct subgroups for the overt trajectories (co-occurring decelerating aggression, high chronic victimization, moderate chronic victimization, typical low risk). Membership in the co-occurring trajectories was associated with psychopathology and membership in the chronic victimization trajectories was related to internalizing and social-cognitive problems but also peer likeability.

Depressive and anxious symptoms and teacher-child dependency and conflict in early childhood.

Internalizing symptoms, including depressive and anxious symptoms, are among the most common mental health concerns for young children. In middle childhood, children who experience more frequent internalizing symptoms tend to also experience more negative relationships with their teachers. Less is known about how children's depressive and anxious symptoms are associated with teacher-child relationship quality in early childhood. The few studies of these associations in early childhood present mixed findings on the directionality of these associations. To address these mixed findings in early childhood, the current study used autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals to examine four conceptual models of the concurrent and prospective associations between children's depressive and anxious symptoms and teacher-child dependency and conflict, including concurrent, child-driven, relationship-driven, and transactional models. Participants were 428 children (49.1% girls, Mage = 4.09 years, SD = 0.32) assessed in the fall and spring of preschool and kindergarten. Children's symptoms of depression and anxiety were related to the concurrent quality of teacher-child dependency and conflict, supporting the concurrent model. Children who experienced increased depressive and anxious symptoms across preschool and kindergarten, relative to their peers and their own average experiences, tended to also experience more dependent and conflictual relationships with their teachers.

Forms of peer victimization in adolescence: Covariation with symptoms of depression.

Peer victimization is a common concern in adolescence that includes both relational (e.g., exclusion, rumor spreading) and overt (e.g., hitting, threatening) forms (Crick & Bigbee, 1998). Relational and overt peer victimization have shown to be differentially associated with depressive symptoms, with relational peer victimization showing a stronger association to depressive symptoms than overt peer victimization (Casper & Card, 2017). The current study uses an accelerated longitudinal research design to investigate: (a) how relational and overt peer victimization and depressive symptoms change over an accelerated age period from 11.1 to 16.8 years (centered at 12.5 years), and (b) concurrent and prospective associations of relational and overt peer victimization with depressive symptoms. Gender differences are investigated. Participants included 1,434 adolescents in grades 7 to 9 (53.5% girls; Mage = 13.5 years, SD = .9) who were assessed over 2 school years. Adolescents were from diverse ethnic groups (45% racialized groups) and from low- to middle-income households. Adolescents reported the frequency of their experiences of relational and overt peer victimization (Crick & Grotpeter, 1996) and depressive symptoms (Bevans et al., 2012) in the fall and spring of each school year. Both forms of peer victimization and depressive symptoms increased from age 12.5 to age 14 before decreasing by age 16.8 years. Frequency of relational peer victimization at age 12.5 was related to depressive symptoms at age 16.8. Frequency of depressive symptoms at age 12.5 predicted change in both forms of peer victimization at age 16.8. Some gender differences were observed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Classroom risks and resources: Teacher burnout, classroom quality and children's adjustment in high needs elementary schools.

The current paper presents two related sets of findings on the classroom context in high needs elementary schools. First, we investigated change over one school term in teacher burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) and classroom quality (emotional and instructional support, organization) and assessed the degree to which burnout and classroom quality co-varied over the term with each other and with aggregate externalizing behaviors (average child externalizing behaviors in the classroom). These analyses describe the classroom context in which the children are nested. Second, we examined change over one school term in children's social adjustment (relationship quality with teachers and friends) and academic adjustment (school engagement, literacy skills) and assessed how adjustment co-varied over time with child externalizing behaviors and was predicted by teacher burnout, classroom quality and aggregate externalizing behaviors. These models were tested with a sample of low-income, ethnically diverse children in kindergarten to grade 3 and their teachers. The children and teachers were assessed three times over one school term. Personal accomplishment co-varied positively with overall classroom quality. Reciprocally, classroom organization co-varied positively with overall teacher burnout. Aggregate externalizing behaviors co-varied positively with depersonalization and negatively with personal accomplishment and overall classroom quality, including emotional support and organization. In turn, teacher burnout interacted with aggregate externalizing behaviors to predict change in child social and academic adjustment. Alternatively, classroom quality interacted with aggregate and child externalizing behaviors to predict change in child social and academic adjustment.

Maternal depressive symptoms during childhood and risky adolescent health behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: Maternal depression is a risk factor for adolescent depression; however, the effect of childhood exposure to maternal depression on adolescent engagement in health risk behaviors (eg, substance use, delinquency) is unclear. METHODS: We examined the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms (child's age 4-15) and engagement in health risk behaviors at age 16 to 17 by using data from 2910 mother-youth pairs in a nationally representative prospective Canadian cohort. Maternal depressive trajectories were estimated through finite mixture modeling, and multiple regression analyses examined the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and engagement in various health risk behaviors (linear regression) and age of debut of various behaviors (Cox regression). RESULTS: Five trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms were found: recurrent maternal symptoms, midchildhood exposure to maternal symptoms, adolescent exposure to maternal symptoms, mild maternal symptoms, and low symptoms. Adolescents exposed to maternal depressive symptoms during middle childhood were more likely to use common substances (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana), engage in violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior, and have an earlier debut ages of cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and hallucinogen use. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that exposure to maternal depressive symptoms, particularly in middle childhood, is associated with greater and earlier engagement in health risk behaviors.

Reciprocating risks of peer problems and aggression for children's internalizing problems.

Three complementary models of how peer relationship problems (exclusion and victimization) and aggressive behaviors relate to prospective levels of internalizing problems are examined. The additive risks model proposes that peer problems and aggression cumulatively increase risks for internalizing problems. The reciprocal risks model hypothesizes that peer problems and aggression transact over time and mediate the effects of each other on prospective internalizing problems. Last, the internalizing risks model proposes that, in addition to aggressive behaviors, prior internalizing problems also provoke peer problems that, in turn, further elevate risks for prospective internalizing problems. Data came from a sample of 453 low-income, ethnically diverse children in kindergarten to Grade 3 who were assessed 3 times over 1 school term (in January, March and June). Findings supported the internalizing risks model. Four key pathways were found to increase risks for internalizing problems by the end of the school year; 2 of these routes were rooted in aggressive behaviors, and 3 paths operated indirectly via levels of peer problems in the spring. Children who were initially aggressive became excluded by peers by the spring, whereas children who initially showed more symptoms of depression and anxiety became victimized by peers by the spring. In turn, both peer exclusion and victimization increased prospective levels of internalizing problems by the end of the school year.

A school-randomized clinical trial of an integrated social-emotional learning and literacy intervention: impacts after 1 school year.

OBJECTIVE: To report experimental impacts of a universal, integrated school-based intervention in social-emotional learning and literacy development on change over 1 school year in 3rd-grade children's social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. METHOD: This study employed a school-randomized, experimental design and included 942 3rd-grade children (49% boys; 45.6% Hispanic/Latino, 41.1% Black/African American, 4.7% non-Hispanic White, and 8.6% other racial/ethnic groups, including Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American) in 18 New York City public elementary schools. Data on children's social-cognitive processes (e.g., hostile attribution biases), behavioral symptomatology (e.g., conduct problems), and literacy skills and academic achievement (e.g., reading achievement) were collected in the fall and spring of 1 school year. RESULTS: There were main effects of the 4Rs Program after 1 year on only 2 of the 13 outcomes examined. These include children's self-reports of hostile attributional biases (Cohen's d = 0.20) and depression (d = 0.24). As expected based on program and developmental theory, there were impacts of the intervention for those children identified by teachers at baseline with the highest levels of aggression (d = 0.32-0.59) on 4 other outcomes: children's self-reports of aggressive fantasies, teacher reports of academic skills, reading achievement scaled scores, and children's attendance. CONCLUSIONS: This report of effects of the 4Rs intervention on individual children across domains of functioning after 1 school year represents an important first step in establishing a better understanding of what is achievable by a schoolwide intervention such as the 4Rs in its earliest stages of unfolding. The first-year impacts, combined with our knowledge of sustained and expanded effects after a second year, provide evidence that this intervention may be initiating positive developmental cascades both in the general population of students and among those at highest behavioral risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of peer victimization and physical aggression on changes in internalizing from first to third grade.

Three models of the prospective relations between child maladjustment and peer victimization are examined: (a) internalizing results directly from victimization, (b) internalizing leads to victimization, and (c) physical aggression fuels retaliatory victimization that leads to increases in internalizing over time. Data came from assessments of children at the beginning of Grade 1 (n = 432; average age = 6.3 years), with follow-ups at the end of Grades 1, 2, and 3. Most children showed low stable internalizing trajectories (73%); however, high stable and increasing curvilinear trajectories were evident for 7% and 20% of children, respectively. Findings suggest that children's adjustment problems at entry to Grade 1 affect the course of their internalizing, in part, by setting the stage for peer victimization.