Victimization in early adolescence can have severe negative consequences later in life. Friendships are especially important in this time period. The present study investigated friendship selection and influence (contagion) processes with regard to victimization, as well as prosocial and aggressive characteristics of victims' friends. Using social…

Since 9/11, the repercussions of religious intolerance have reached center stage, highlighted by religious hate crime statistics, governmental policies, and documented cases of increased anxiety. Religious illiteracy is also highlighted as a phenomenon across the American landscape. Conceptual arguments hold that knowledge of other religions can…

We investigated how adolescents (sixth-graders, N = 357) morally evaluated hypothetical bullying and defending protagonists and whether these evaluations related to behavior in bullying as nominated by peers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) resulted in four factors for the evaluation of the hypothetical bullies: "Evil soul,"…

The construct of moral disengagement has increasingly been used by researchers to account for the asymmetry between children's moral reasoning and their moral behavior. According to this theory, moral disengagement occurs most aptly when children are motivated to violate their moral beliefs, such as when they hold antisocial goals during social…

Longitudinal links between early childhood temperament, maternal sensitivity, and adolescents' adjustment have been proposed and found in several longitudinal studies, but the mechanisms of influence have not been explored. The authors examined the paths from maternal sensitivity and temperament in early childhood to adolescents' prosocial,…

This study examined the behavioral, personality, and communicative predictors of acceptance and popularity in 608 early adolescents. Data were collected with sociometric methods and ratings in 30 sixth-grade classrooms. Hierarchical regressions were run to predict acceptance and popularity from prosocial, antisocial, and withdrawn behavior,…

This study examined associations of communicative skills, social behavior, and personality with acceptance and popularity as a function of hearing status, gender, and educational setting. Participants were 87 deaf and 672 hearing early adolescents of 52 6th grade classrooms in mainstream and special education. Acceptance varied as a function of…

Longitudinal relationships between adolescents' life satisfaction and peer victimization and prosocial experiences were assessed. A total of 417 students in Grades 6-8 completed the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS: Huebner, 1994) and the Children's Social Experience Questionnaire - Self Report (SEQ-SR: Crick & Grotpeter,…

This qualitative study examined individual-level factors that influence adolescents' responses to problem situations involving peers. Interviews were conducted with 106 middle school students (97% African American) from an urban school system. Participants described factors that would make it easier and those that would make it more difficult for…

Behavioral descriptors were identified as variant or invariant predictors of perceived popularity in a sample of 516 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children located in 26 majority-Black or majority-White classrooms. Athletic ability, prosocial behavior, being "cool", social withdrawal, and "personal privilege" (i.e., having a lot of expensive…

Commitment and attachment to school and perception of school norms were examined in a sample of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to determine whether bullies, victims, bully victims, and students who reported no or low levels of bullying and victimization differed in their level of bonding to school and their perceptions of standards and…

Two studies examined fifth- and sixth-grade students' perceptions of antisocial and prosocial teasing among peers and potential correlates of individual differences in their tendencies to engage in both forms of teasing. The children were rated as showing a greater tendency to be prosocial teasers than antisocial teasers by both teachers and…

This booklet outlines activities and objectives for a crime prevention education program in the sixth grade. The document is part of a K-eighth grade crime resistance project designed to promote and maintain positive student attitudes and behavior, to assist students in meeting their responsibilities, and to help them insure their own and other…

This teacher's guide provides an approach for teachers of grades 6-8 to teach media literacy and promote an informed public conversation about the impact of violent imagery in the culture today. Five key goals govern the program: (1) to reduce exposure to media violence; (2) to change the impact of violent images that are seen; (3) to locate and…