This study examines the relationships between peer victimization, peer relations and depression among adolescents, with a focus on the moderating roles of peer rejection, peer acceptance and reciprocal friendships on the association between peer victimization and depression. A sample of 605 adolescents (average age 13.5 years) completed measures…

People with intellectual disabilities often face discriminatory behaviour in everyday life. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain insight into experiences of discrimination of people with intellectual disabilities. The research participants were 25 people with mild intellectual disabilities who live in Zagreb, Croatia. Their experiences…

Previous research has shown that group processes are particularly pertinent to children's bullying, and who they socially exclude and include. This paper looks at how children's responses to social exclusion change according to their friends' group-based emotions. Children aged 8-11 years (N = 77) read stories about a friendship group to which…

The present longitudinal study examined how and why classroom-level victimization moderates the prospective association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms with 2,643 third- and fourth-graders (M[subscript age] = 10.01 years) in China. Multilevel modeling revealed that peer victimization was more strongly associated with increasing…

We explored how gender and gender similarity affects friendship dissolution following the transition to middle school. We predicted that both gender and gender similarity (measured by perceived similarity to own-gender and other-gender peers) explain dissolution trends and that less own-gender similarity or more other-gender similarity predicts…

Social norms are vital for the functioning of adolescent peer groups; they can protect the well-being of groups and individual members, often by deterring harmful behaviors, such as aggression, through enforcement mechanisms like peer victimization; in adolescent peer groups, those who violate aggression norms are often subject to victimization.…

Background: Very-low-income students are a population at a high risk of perpetrating and suffering bullying at school, and at the same time the peer group at school is often one of the few sources of support for these minors. Objective: This two-wave study is aimed to disambiguate the two different roles of peer acceptance and friendship on…

This study investigated the gender-specific effects of social achievement goals -- i.e., social development goals, social demonstration approach goals, and social demonstration avoid goals -- on bullying perpetration in a sample of 788 adolescents (53.3% girls), taking into account the mediating role of sense of belonging and non-inclusive group…

Background: Refugee children might have experienced violent and traumatic events before settling into a new country. In the United Kingdom, the number of refugee children is increasing; however, little is known about their psycho-social and physical well-being. Aim: This study aims to investigate the psychological well-being and behaviour of…

The aim of the study was to examine Swedish school pupils' perspectives on why some pupils engage in bullying, support bullying or avoid standing up for the one(s) being bullied, despite a shared understanding that bullying is wrong. Through the use of focus group interviews combined with two bullying vignettes, a total of 74 pupils from grades 5…

In this paper we consider discourses of friendship and belonging mobilised by girls who are not part of the dominant "cool" group in one English primary school. We explore how, by investing in alternative and, at times, resistant, discourses of "being nice" and "being normal" these "non-cool" girls were able…

Background: Past research has shown that peer victimization by bullying is associated with peer rejection and fear of victimization, but little is known about the interplay between victimization and other characteristics in the prediction of these experiences. We assume that the associations between victimization and peer rejection/fear of…

The goal of this article is to provide a critical analysis of barriers to social inclusion and integration in schools and propose inclusive educational practices that help connect and unite diverse students. Diversity is defined broadly to refer to a range of differences (i.e., overall heterogeneity) across students. We review theoretical…

This study addresses the interacting effects of classroom cohesion and hierarchy on the relationships between victimization and aggression with peer acceptance and rejection. Classroom cohesion and hierarchy were constructed from friendship nominations. Multilevel analysis conducted in a sample of seventh- and eighth-grade students from the…

The current study examined how racial and sociobehavioral similarities were associated with friendship stability and friendship quality. Cross-race friends were not significantly similar to each other in peer-nominated shyness/withdrawal, victimization, exclusion, and popularity/sociability. Relative to same-race friends, cross-race friends were…