Bullying is a social phenomenon that involves more participants than the bully and the victim. Since the identification of other bullying participant behaviors, endeavors have been made to explore what inclines a person to defend a victim of bullying. With the social cognitive theory in mind, the current study examined whether students' level of…

While it is well established that positive peer relationships lead to positive outcomes, little is known about the mediating role of school motivation on the association between perceived peer support and school achievement among middle grades students. Even less is known about the effect of gender on this mediation. The current study examined…

This study investigated characteristics associated with two kinds of peer victimization--bullying victimization and adversarial victimization--distinguished by different balances of power between the perpetrator and victim. Specifically, we examined whether bullying victimization (victim has less power than perpetrator) would be experienced to a…

Reading skills are considered an important lever for success in school and active participation in society. They are positively associated with reading motivation, reading self-concept, reading frequency, and behavioral engagement in reading (e.g., time, effort), variables that tend to decline as students move from elementary to secondary school.…

In Norway 5.8% of students report being bullied as much as three or more times a month [UDIR. 2021a. Student Survey 2020 [Elevundersøkelsen 2020]. https://www.udir.no/tall-og-forskning/finn-forskning/rapporter/elevundersokelsen-2020-nasjonale-tall-formobbing-og-arbeidsro/]. The present study investigates the likelihood of students being bullied…

In social groups, such as school-based peer networks, youth often vie for power and dominance over others. Different strategies may be used to gain power (i.e., coercive and/or cooperative strategies), and with varying levels of success. Using a social networks approach, we examined whether and how social network centrality and social network…

We investigated how 5th-8th graders' self- and peer-identified withdrawal motivations predicted peer-reported peer relationships and aggression. Participants (N = 221; 47% male) provided self-reports and peer-nomination data (we analyzed 339 students' nominations). We hypothesized shyness, unsociability, and avoidance would predict low peer liking…

This study aims to explore the overlapping influences of the home and school on peer victimization in adolescents under the notion of home-school partnership and to investigate how the parent-child relationship, teacher-student relationship, teenage depressive symptoms are related to peer victimization by constructing a moderated mediation model.…

We investigated (1) grade differences in perceived stigma-based peer victimization (SBPV); (2) differences in perceived student and teacher/staff defending against types of SBPV; and (3) whether defending against SBPV affected student subjective wellbeing (SSWB) via anti-victimization school climate perceptions. Participants were 1124 US…

Achievement goal theory research, which investigates students' perceptions of the classroom climate, has mainly focused on teacher practices from a deductive perspective. However, this appears to hinder a fuller understanding of all the factors that influence students' perceptions of the classroom goal structures (CGS). Therefore, using a…

Perceived life satisfaction during the period of childhood and adolescence can be considered a reliable measure of psychological and emotional growth of children and adolescents. The current study aimed to investigate age differences related to social support provided to students (by teachers, classmates, parents and close friends), and its…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether seventh-grade positive peer affiliation and conduct problems mediated the relationship between sixth-grade parental monitoring of behavior and eighth-grade school participation and grades among students with elevated behavior ratings (EBR; n = 821) and students with unelevated behavior ratings (UBR;…

Student victimization by school staff members has important potential consequences for students' academic achievement and physical and psychological outcomes. Several studies have shown that such victimization exists in multiple contexts and there is considerable variation in prevalence among contexts. This study examined the prevalence of student…

We examine elementary and middle school students social interactions while engaged in making activities designed to promote computational thinking (CT). Participants include 52 students in grades five, six, seven and eight working in 17 different groups in three different schools in the Northeast. Students solved CT challenges introduced by their…

The current study investigated the associations among student perceptions of COVID-19 stress, internalizing problems, and school social support (teacher and classmate support) and how these relations differed across elementary/middle and high school students. Based on data from 526 4th- through 12th-grade students from a school district in the…