Using retrospective reports to develop profiles of harmful versus playful teasing experiences.

Introduction: The current investigation's central goal was to elucidate the complex features of peer teasing episodes that individuals use to interpret teasing as harmful versus playful.

Method: In 2022-2023, we used semistructured interviews to gather retrospective reports of K-12 peer teasing experiences from a sample of 27 students from a university in southern Ontario, Canada (18-25 years old, 63% female, 78% White).

Results: Content analysis revealed the multifaceted nature of teasing, with participants defining teasing as harmful, playful, or including elements of both harm and pleasure.

Differences in Aggression and Alcohol Use among Youth with Varying Levels of Victimization and Popularity Status.

Awareness that high-status adolescents can be targets of aggression has grown in recent years. However, questions remain about the associations of the confluence of victimization and popularity with adjustment. The current study fills this gap by examining the joint and unique effects of victimization and popularity on aggression and alcohol use.

Adolescent Victim Types Across the Popularity Status Hierarchy: Differences in Internalizing Symptoms.

Previous studies have called attention to the fact that popular youth are not immune to peer victimization, suggesting there is heterogeneity in the popularity of victims. Yet, no study to date has determined whether victims with different levels of popularity status can be identified using person-oriented analysis. Such analysis is critically needed to confirm the existence of popular victims.

Heterogeneity of Social Marginalization in Early Adolescence: Longitudinal Associations with Behavioral and Social Adjustment.

Integration into formal and informal peer groups is a key developmental task during early adolescence. As youth begin to place greater value on attaining acceptance and popularity among peers, social status among one's peer group becomes an important marker of social functioning during this developmental period. Whereas much empirical research has been devoted to understanding heterogeneity among youth holding high status positions, similar distinctions have largely not been examined among socially marginalized youth.

Creating Supportive Contexts for Early Adolescents during the First Year of Middle School: Impact of a Developmentally Responsive Multi-Component Intervention.

The transition to middle school is recognized as a period of increased risk for students' adjustment difficulties across the academic, behavioral, and social domains, underscoring the need for developmentally responsive interventions that address these potential vulnerabilities. This study examined the impact of a multi-component intervention on students' perceived adjustment during the first year of middle school using a cluster randomized controlled trial design. A total of 24 metropolitan schools (12 intervention), 220 teachers (122 intervention), and 2925 students (1537 intervention) participated.

Self- and Peer-Identified Victims in Late Childhood: Differences in Perceptions of the School Ecology.

Patterns of adjustment for youth victimized by peers vary depending on whether youth are identified as victims through self-reports, peer-reports, or both. In order to provide more targeted strategies that may help mitigate negative consequences associated with specific victimization groups, more information is needed about how these youth perceive their school ecology (bullying and academic ecology), their feelings of school belonging, and their valuing of school. Based on the convergence of self- and peer-reports of victimization, we identified four victim groups from a sample of students in 5th grade classrooms (N = 1360; 52.

Teacher attunement to peer-nominated aggressors.

This study examined the associations between teacher attunement to aggressive students and students' characteristics in a sample (n = 278) of youth in 5th-grade classrooms with the assumption that certain student characteristics may either prime or hinder teachers' attunement to aggressive students. Teacher attunement was measured as the agreement between teacher- and peer-nominations for students who start fights. Teachers rated their students on the following characteristics: academic competence, affiliation, popularity, internalizing behavior, and Olympian qualities.

Aggression, academic behaviors, and popularity perceptions among boys of color during the transition to middle school.

The transition to middle school often presents behavioral and academic challenges to youths. Boys of color (i.e.

The role of popularity goal in early adolescents' behaviors and popularity status.

The effect of popularity goal on the use of 3 popularity-related behaviors and later popularity status was examined in a diverse sample of 314 6th-grade students (176 girls and 138 boys) in both fall (Time 1) and spring (Time 2) semesters. Popularity goal and the use of popularity-driven behaviors (e.g.