Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Adjustment (Psychology) in children
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky
Description
The current study expands prior work on children's coping with peer victimization by employing person-centered analyses to identify discrete classes of coping behavior, associations with children's maladjustment, and patterns of stability and change over time. Specifically, data were collected at two longitudinal time points from 515 middle school children who reported experiencing at least occasional peer victimization (284 girls, 231 boys; Mage = 8 years, 5 months, SDage = 10.38 months). Three active, behavioral coping strategies were examined: support seeking from teachers, support seeking from friends, and retaliation. A series of cross-sectional latent profile analyses suggested that coping styles may be characterized by 3 distinct classes: (1) support seeking, (2) retaliation, or (3) a combination of these strategies, labeled mixed strategy coping. Peer victimization, depression, and loneliness were included as concurrent covariates of class membership and results indicate that mixed strategy coping may put children at greater social and emotional risk, whereas both support seeking and retaliation may pose potential benefits in the face of victimization. Further, longitudinal latent transition analyses were conducted to examine the stability and change in coping over time, indicating that coping is largely dispositional, though has the potential to change, particularly among children who experience shifts towards greater maladjustment over time. Results emphasize mixed strategy coping - a coping style that is underrepresented in the current research - as both an important factor that may contribute to greater social and emotional difficulties and also as a potential transitioning point during which change in children's coping may be addressed.
ContributorsVisconti, Kari Jeanne (Author) / Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Ladd, Gary W (Thesis advisor) / Valiente, Carlos (Committee member) / Kochel, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Despite some prevailing attitudes that bullying is normal, relatively innocuous behavior, it has recently been recognized as a serious problem in schools worldwide. Victimized students are more likely to evidence poor academic and semi-academic outcomes, experience social difficulties, and drop out of school in comparison to their non-victimized peers. Although anti-bullying programs have proliferated during the last decade, those aimed at helping children cope with bullying often suffer from a lack of basic research on the effectiveness of children's responses to bullying. The focus of this study was to delineate the ways in which elementary school-aged children typically cope with peer victimization, then to examine which strategies reduce future risk for harassment and associated adjustment problems to inform prevention and intervention program development. A cohort-sequential design was used to examine the effectiveness of children's strategies for coping with peer victimization. The sample included 317 children (157 boys; 49.5% Caucasian, 50.5% Hispanic; M age =10 years 5 months at T1) who were surveyed in the Fall and Spring of two academic years. Confirmatory factory analysis was used to validate the factor structure of the coping measure used and internal reliability was verified. Comparison of means indicated differences in children's coping based upon sex and age. For example, girls tend to cope more emotionally and cognitively, while boys are more behavioral in their coping. Regression results indicated that a number of specific relationships were present between coping, victimization, loneliness, and anxiety. For example, support seeking behavior was effective at decreasing victimization for younger children (fourth graders) who experienced high initial victimization. In contrast, revenge seeking behavior was predictive of increased victimization for both girls and highly victimized students. Problem solving was effective at reducing adjustment problems over time for younger students and, although results for older students were non-significant, it appears to be a promising strategy due to a lack of association with negative future outcomes. Results highlight the importance of identifying influential characteristics of individual children in order for prevention and intervention programs to successfully decrease the incidence and adverse impact of bullying behavior.
ContributorsPolasky, Sarah Anne (Author) / Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Moore, Elsie G. J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
It is widely recognized that peer-directed aggression and victimization are pervasive social problems that impact school-aged children and adolescents. This study investigated the developmental course of aggression and victimization, and more specifically, addressed three primary aims. First, distinct subgroups of children were identified based on similarities and differences in their physical, verbal and relational aggression and victimization. Second, developmental stability (and instability) were assessed by examining the extent to which individuals remain (or change) subgroups throughout childhood and adolescence. Third, group classifications and transitions over time were assessed as a function of children’s individual characteristics and their relational and contextual experiences.
The sample for this longitudinal study consisted of 482 children (50% females) who were followed over time from grades 1 to 11. Multiple-informant data on children’s physical, verbal and relational aggression and victimization (peer-reports), individual characteristics including emotion dysregulation, withdrawn behaviors (teacher-reports), and hostile and self-blaming attributions (self-reports), and their relational and contextual experiences including peer rejection, friendships, social hierarchy and classroom aggression (peer-reports) were assessed in grades 1, 5, 8, and 11. Data analyses primarily consisted of a series of person-centered methods including latent profile and latent transition analyses.
Most of the identified subgroups (e.g., aggressors, victims and aggressive-victims) were distinguishable by their frequencies (i.e., levels) of aggression and victimization, rather than forms (physical, verbal and relational), with the exception of one group that appeared to be more form-specific (i.e., relational aggressive-victims). Among children in each group there was a modest degree of intra-individual stability, and findings elucidated how some groups appeared to be more stable than others as well as developmental differences. Although group stability was fairly common across all groups, and over time, patterns of instability also emerged.
The combination of trends reflecting both stability and instability support the perspective that the development of aggression in childhood and adolescence is characterized by heterogeneity. In contrast to perspectives that highlight the individual stability of aggression (e.g., that it is a stable behavioral style or individual disposition), findings elucidate the individual, relational and contextual mechanisms by which developmental stability and instability were more pronounced.
The sample for this longitudinal study consisted of 482 children (50% females) who were followed over time from grades 1 to 11. Multiple-informant data on children’s physical, verbal and relational aggression and victimization (peer-reports), individual characteristics including emotion dysregulation, withdrawn behaviors (teacher-reports), and hostile and self-blaming attributions (self-reports), and their relational and contextual experiences including peer rejection, friendships, social hierarchy and classroom aggression (peer-reports) were assessed in grades 1, 5, 8, and 11. Data analyses primarily consisted of a series of person-centered methods including latent profile and latent transition analyses.
Most of the identified subgroups (e.g., aggressors, victims and aggressive-victims) were distinguishable by their frequencies (i.e., levels) of aggression and victimization, rather than forms (physical, verbal and relational), with the exception of one group that appeared to be more form-specific (i.e., relational aggressive-victims). Among children in each group there was a modest degree of intra-individual stability, and findings elucidated how some groups appeared to be more stable than others as well as developmental differences. Although group stability was fairly common across all groups, and over time, patterns of instability also emerged.
The combination of trends reflecting both stability and instability support the perspective that the development of aggression in childhood and adolescence is characterized by heterogeneity. In contrast to perspectives that highlight the individual stability of aggression (e.g., that it is a stable behavioral style or individual disposition), findings elucidate the individual, relational and contextual mechanisms by which developmental stability and instability were more pronounced.
ContributorsEttekal, Idean (Author) / Ladd, Gary W (Thesis advisor) / Dumka, Larry (Committee member) / Jager, Justin (Committee member) / Kochel, Karen P (Committee member) / Kochenderfer-Ladd, Becky (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016