Teachers do not always recognise students who are victimised by their peers. In this study, we examined the recognition of stable victims in 76 schools beginning to implement the KiVa antibullying programme. We focused on 348 victims (9-15 years) who reported victimisation at the pretest and still at wave 2, after five months of programme…

The present study provides a person-centered view on teachers' adherence to the KiVa antibullying curriculum over a school year. Factor mixture modeling was used to examine how teachers (N = 282) differed in their implementation profiles and multinomial logistic regression was used to identify factors related to these profiles. On the basis of…

The effects of guilt, shame, and externalization of blame on aggressive behavior were investigated among a total of 307 Finnish fifth and sixth graders (M[subscript age] = 11.9 years). Self-reported proneness to feel guilt and shame was expected to reduce levels of peer-reported aggressive behavior, whereas self-reported externalization of blame…

This study examined whether the degree to which bullying is normative in the classroom would moderate associations between "intra"- (cognitive and affective empathy, self-efficacy beliefs) and "inter"personal (popularity) factors and defending behavior. Participants were 6,708 third- to fifth-grade children (49% boys;…

In order to battle bullying, it can be important for students to have teachers whom they see as taking an active stand against bullying in terms of propagating antibullying norms and having an efficacious approach to decreasing bullying. This expectation was tested with data from the control schools of the Finnish evaluation of the KiVa…

Although knowledge on the psychosocial (mal)adjustment of bully-victims, children who bully others and are victimised by others, has been increasing, the findings have been principally gained utilising a single method to identify bully-victims. The present study examined the psychosocial adjustment of bully-victims (as compared with pure bullies…

Background: Evidence suggests that the KiVa anti-bullying programme may contribute to a reduction in bullying and victimisation, especially in primary school level. What is more, the level of implementation moderates the programme effects: the more the programme was implemented, the more bullying was reduced. Purpose: Consequently, it is of…

In this short-term longitudinal study, we systematically examined the distinctiveness of guilt- and shame-proneness in early adolescents (N = 395, mean age = 11.8 years) in terms of differential relations with peer reported prosocial behavior, withdrawal, and aggression. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that guilt-proneness…

This study investigated the prevalence of and factors associated with school bullying and victimization among Finnish international adoptees. The Olweus bully/victim questionnaire was sent to all 9-15-year-old children adopted in Finland between 1985 and 2007 through the mediating organizations officially approved by the Ministry of Social Affairs…

This study focused on the dyadic defending relationships of victimized children in grades 3, 4, and 5 (N = 7481 children from 356 school classes, mean ages 10-12 years). Most of the victims (72.3%) had at least one defender. Being defended was positively related to victims' adjustment and social status. Analyses on victim-defender dyads showed…

This study (a) compared native Finns and immigrant children with respect to different forms of peer victimization and (b) tested whether intrapersonal (e.g., depression) and interpersonal (e.g., peer rejection) risk factors help to explain the association between immigrant status and peer victimization. The sample was drawn from the first phase of…

Objective: The effects of school-based antibullying programs have typically been examined on small samples, with number of schools ranging from 1 to 78 (Farrington & Ttofi, 2009). This study investigated the effectiveness of the KiVa antibullying program in the beginning of its nationwide implementation in Finland. Method: At each time point,…