Chapter 10

Teachers need to be aware of bullying and willing to intervene. - In addition, bystanders—children who watch episodes of bullying but do not act—reinforce bullies' behaviors and increase bullying.

Class norms can influence whether bystanders intervene. So can advice from parents. Classmates can be encouraged to support one another when bullying events occur: Rather than being bystanders or egging the bully on, they can tell a teacher, refuse to watch, and even, if safe, encourage bullies to stop.

child bully

Bullying risk factors: Above average in size More physically and verbally assertive Impulsive Domineering, hostile toward peers Little anxiety or insecurity in peer contexts Makes friends easily Hyperactive behavior Academic difficulties Poor emotional control Bullying intervention: Teach alternatives to violence. Help children develop empathy. Teach emotional management and coping skills to reduce impulsive behavior.

adult victim

Bullying risk factors: Intrusive, overprotective, and/or critical parenting Teach authoritative parenting skills. Bullying intervention: Encourage parents to aid children in being independent and developing coping skills.

Socioeconomic status (SES) influences children's motivation

through the availability of opportunities and resources and through parents' behavior.

Parents influence children

through the home context they provide.

how do parents influence children's achievement?

through their own beliefs and attitudes about ability.

Boys and girls who bully tend

to be impulsive and domineering, and they show little anxiety or insecurity in peer contexts.

Interventions focusing on victims seek

to change victims' negative perceptions of themselves by helping them to acquire the skills needed to maintain relationships with peers and teaching them to respond to bullying in ways that do not reinforce their attackers.

middle childhood

6-11 years - during this time, children have conceptions of themselves and their abilities

meaning and implications of bullying may vary with context - relational bullying may be more emotionally damaging to children reared in collectivist cultures that highly value relationships.

Accordingly, one comparison of Japanese and U.S. fourth graders showed more depression in Japanese victims

Can a child be happy without friends or without a best friend?

An estimated 15% to 20% of children are chronically friendless or consistently without a mutual best friend

What contributes to self concept

Brain development - unlike adults, children use many areas of the brain when processing info suggesting processing becomes more efficient and self-concept becomes more complex and differentiated.

child victim

Bullying risk factors: passivity Physically weak Younger than peers Anxious, insecure, low self-esteem, dependent Quiet, cautious, withdrawn Little prosocial behavior Poor emotional control Loneliness Unhappiness at school Few good friends than peers Bullying intervention: Teach assertiveness skills. Teach children alternative responses to bullying. Teach anxiety and emotional management as well as social and coping skills.

Aggressive-rejected children

Characteristics: confrontational, hostile toward other children Impulsive and hyperactive Difficulty with emotional regulation Difficulty taking others' perspectives Assume that their peers are out to get them Poor social skills Outcomes: Misinterpret other children's behaviors and motives Similar outcomes for both types of rejected children Negative characteristics are strengthened. Few opportunities to learn and practice social skills, conflict resolution, and emotional regulation

Self-concept

Children learn more about themselves from interactions. Older children understand traits vary with situations or contexts.

who scores high on academic achievement but lower in self-esteem compared to North American children(whose culture has an emphasis on individuality)? Why?

Chinese and Japanese children (Asian cultures) - emphasize collectivism, social harmony, and modesty they don't use social comparison to enhance their self-esteem instead they praise others and minimize attention to themselves to maintain relationships

friendships are rooted in similarity. Children tend to choose friends who share interests, play preferences, and personality characteristics & similarities in cognitive ability and intelligence & tend to share demographics, such as gender, race, and ethnicity

For example, in one study of 6- to 12-year-old U.S. children of Cambodian, Dominican, and Portuguese heritage, children became more proud of their heritage as they grew older and in turn showed a greater preference to form friendships within their ethnic group

Friendships serve important developmental purposes throughout the lifespan.

Friends provide each other with tangible and emotional support. They are also a source of social comparison, permitting children to judge their competence relative to peers.

for school aged children

Friendship and peer acceptance become important influences on adjustment.

A minority of popular children do not show the prosocial and empathetic characteristics typical of popular children.

Often labeled by peers and teachers as tough, these children are socially skilled yet show antisocial and aggressive behavior. Aggressive popular children show social competencies similar to prosocial popular children, yet also share many characteristics of children who are rejected by their peers

Not all victims of bullying are passive and withdrawn

Older children who experience frequent victimization may respond with more intense feelings of anger and greater desires to retaliate, making them more likely to show reactive aggression, an aggressive response to an insult, confrontation, or frustration.

Rates of bullying may vary with the sociocultural context.

One study of Puerto Rican children living in the South Bronx, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, showed that children were more likely to bully others when they were part of a minority group on the mainland than when they were living in their home culture in Puerto Rico. - Mainland children who were more acculturated, or acclimated to U.S. culture, engaged in more bullying than did their less acculturated peers. - The longer the children lived on the mainland, the greater the demands of navigating cross-cultural worlds. - Bullying may be a response to the distress of navigating cross-cultural worlds or a response to perceived discrimination.

Helping victims of bullying is not enough, though—perpetrators of bullying also need help.

Parents and teachers should help bullies learn to identify, understand, and manage their and other people's emotions, as well as direct anger in safe and appropriate ways.

risk factors

Risk factors are circumstances that increase the likelihood of negative outcomes and, in extreme cases, can impede development.

Early Childhood

Self-concept based on categorical self Focus on present - Focus on characteristics that mark the individual as different from others and remain the same over time

Middle Childhood

Self-concept based on understanding of stable individual differences in personality traits and abilities

industry versus inferiority

The fourth of Erikson's eight psychosocial crises, during which children attempt to master many skills (math, reading/writing, and using computers), developing a sense of themselves as competent( success at tasks- curiosity, motivation, self-concept, and self-esteem) rather than inadequate.

mastery orientation - who experiences a strong one

a belief that success stems from trying hard and that failures are influenced by factors that can be controlled , such as effort, and they focus on changing or adapting their behavior when faced with challenges - children who have internal explanations and a growth mindset - teachers influence this too

Cyberbullying is

a type of relational bullying carried out by electronic means by text or electronic communication and social media. Cyberbullying tends to accompany other types of bullying rather than occur independently

As self-concept becomes more differentiated

about 9 y/o develop a physical (attributes and attractiveness) self-concept, academic self-concept, athletic self-concept, social concept, and beliefs about behavioral conduct

Bullying

also known as peer victimization - refers to an ongoing interaction in which a child repeatedly attempts to inflict physical, verbal, or social harm on another child by, for example, hitting, kicking, name-calling, teasing, shunning, or humiliating the other child. Bullying is a problem for school-age children in many countries.

Older children become more upset

at losing a friend and find making friends more challenging than do young children (others adjust well by replacing them) - may cause depression, loneliness, guilt, anger, anxiety, and acting-out behaviors, yet children with psychosocial problems are also at risk to experience friendship loss and, in turn, show poor adjustment

Although children respond in various ways to bullying,

avoidance behaviors are common. Victims of bullying may respond to victimization in ways that reinforce bullies by becoming defensive, crying, and giving into bullies' demands.

Children who experience peer rejection tend to

be disliked and shunned by their peers. Children who have poor communication, language, emotional control, and social information processing skills are at risk for peer rejection.

fixed mindset

believing their characteristics are enduring and unchangeable

older children include

both positive and negative traits

Bully-victims share characteristics of both bullies and victims but function more poorly than either.

bully-victims tend to show high levels of anxiety and depression, as well as low rates of social acceptance and self-esteem common to victims, but they also show more aggression, impulsivity, and poor self-control than do other victims. - Children who are bully-victims have difficulties managing emotions that may increase their risk for reactive aggression and acting out behaviors that invite aggressive exchanges with others. These characteristics lead children who are both bullies and victims to have problems in peer relationships. Bully-victims often are among the most disliked members of a classroom

popular children

characteristics: Helpful, trustworthy, assertive Cognitively skilled and achievement oriented Socially skilled, able to self-disclose and provide emotional support Good social problem-solving skills and conflict resolution skills Prosocial orientation Assume others have good intentions A minority are also antisocial and aggressive. They interact with others in a hostile way, using physical or relational aggression, and are likely to bully other children. outcomes: Positive characteristics are strengthened though experience and peer approval. Positive peer evaluations are sources of self-validation, self-esteem, confidence, and attention from peers, and they influence adjustment. Without intervention, the minority of popular adolescents who are aggressive are likely to continue patterns of physical or relational aggression in response to peer approval and acceptance.

withdrawn-rejected children

characteristics: passive, timid, and emotional awkward Socially withdrawn, isolate themselves from others Anxious Poor social skills Fear being disliked by peers Misinterpret other children's behaviors and motives outcomes: Poor academic achievement Increased physical and relational aggression over time Withdrawal and loneliness

Rejected children show two patterns of behavior,

characterized by either aggression or withdrawal.

physical bullying is most common in

childhood, and verbal/relational forms of bullying rise in childhood and remain common in adolescence.

In schools that are ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically diverse

children are more likely to report having at least one close friend of another race - School-age girls may be more likely to have ethnically diverse social networks and cross-race friendships than boys

mindset

children vary - the degree to which they believe that their abilities and characteristics are modifiable

Positive social competencies and prosocial behaviors are cyclical;

children who excel at social interaction continue to do so, their peers tend to reciprocate, and positive effects on peer relationships increase.

Aggressive-rejected children like Monica are

confrontational, hostile toward other children, impulsive, and hyperactive. They enter peer groups in destructive ways that disrupt the group's interaction or activity and direct attention to themselves. Aggressive-rejected children tend to have difficulty taking the perspective of others, and they tend to react aggressively to slights by peers, quickly assuming hostile intentions. Children whose parents show little warmth and use coercive discipline and threats are likely to threaten other children, have poor social skills, show aggressive behavior, and are more likely to be rejected by other children.

Children who show physically aggressive forms of bullying often

demonstrate hyperactive behavior, have poor school achievement, perceive less support from teachers than do other children, and may show higher rates of depression than other children.

Authoritative parents who promote their children's autonomy

encourage their children to explore their environment, and permit them to take an active role in solving their own problems foster a mastery orientation

In middle to late childhood, friends are

expected to be loyal and stick up for each other. Violations of trust, such as divulging secrets, breaking promises, and not helping a friend in need, can break up a friendship.

Relationally aggressive children, including bullies, are

frequently perceived by peers as cool, powerful, and popular; bullying can be helpful in maintaining prestige. Indirect forms of bullying, such as relational bullying, require social skills, which contribute to the relational bully's high social status among peers. In support of this, many bullies report making friends easily and receive similar levels of support from their classmates as other children

Estimated rates of bullying and victimization range

from 15% to 25% of children in Australia, Austria, England, Finland, Germany, Norway, and the United States.

Popular children tend to

have a variety of positive characteristics, including helpfulness, trustworthiness, assertiveness, and prosocial habits. They are skilled in emotional regulation and social information processing. That is, popular children are good at reading social situations, problem solving, self-disclosure, and conflict resolution.

older children

have the ability to take other people's perspectives which enables them to consider abilities objectively. - b/c they evaluate and compare themselves to others influencing their sense of competence - also receive feedback from others

Warm and supportive parenting (Raftery, Grolnick, & Flamm, 2012). In contrast, excessive control and harsh criticism can damage children's motivation.

helps children to recognize their worth and appreciate their own competence.

Children who grow up in high SES families

how a greater mastery orientation and higher levels of achievement motivation, as well as better academic performance and greater involvement in organized activities after school

Bullies are more likely to experience

inconsistent, hostile, and rejecting parenting. Parents of bullies are more likely to provide poor supervision, prefer coercive control and physical discipline, and tend to be permissive toward aggressive behavior, even teaching their children to strike back at perceived provocation

views about abilities and explanations for success and failures are influenced by

interaction with people around us - socioeconomic status and culture

In middle childhood, friendship transforms

into a reciprocal relationship in which children are responsive to each other's needs and trust each other. Shared values and rules become important components to friendship by 9 to 10 years of age

core of self-esteem

is the internalized view of themselves as worthy individuals

Bullying is not simply a child-to-child problem, and

it requires more than a child-centered solution.

These latter methods

known as relational aggression, include ridiculing, embarrassing, and spreading rumors. - this bullying becomes more prevalent in middle childhood and increases throughout adolescence

Parents in low SES families that often work jobs that involve long hours, rotating and nonstandard shifts, and high physical demands

lack the energy and time to devote to children, and they may be unaware of opportunities or unable to take advantage of them

students from the Pacific islands rated family, teacher, luck, and friends as more important for their best marks

less likely to adopt internal attributions (e.g., ability, effort) for their best and worst marks compared with European and Asian students.

Victims of bullying are

likely to be inhibited, frail in appearance, and younger than their peers. They often experience intrusive parenting, overprotectiveness, and criticism from parents, which increases their vulnerability to bullying. Perhaps not surprisingly, children who are bullied often report feeling lonely and less happy at school and having fewer good friends than their classmates - characteristics, including nonassertive styles of interacting with peers, shyness, passivity, and social withdrawal, as well as anxiety, depression, and poor emotional control, are present before the child becomes a target of peer victimization and are amplified by victimization

Some research suggests that young elementary schoolchildren without friends score

lower on measures of theory of mind, suggesting that they are not cognitively prepared to take another person's perspective, a skill critical to making friends

Teachers who relate failure back to their students' effort are supportive of their students, and stress learning goals over performance goals are

more likely to have mastery-oriented students

Preschoolers self-concept

not "realistic" like school-aged children more optimistic overestimates abilities

self-esteem

nurtured by parental warmth - meaning they express positive emotions + shows acceptance + gives the feeling that he or she matters is influenced by the home environment in the context of warm and accepting parent-child interactions, encouragement for realistic and meaningful goals, and praise on performance When children look to outside sources to define their self-concept, this can negatively impact their self-esteem.

with age, children differentiate among best friends, good friends, and casual friends, depending

on how much time they spend together and how much they share with one another

Narcissism causes :

overpraises performances, over-encourages them to stand out, making them think their superior to others

Other rejected children are socially withdrawn,

passive, timid, anxious, and socially awkward. Withdrawn-rejected children tend to isolate themselves from peers, rarely initiate contact with peers, and speak less frequently than their peers They tend to spend most of their time playing alone and on the periphery of the social scene, often because of shyness or social anxiety. When socially withdrawn children experience peer rejection, they tend to become more withdrawn and even more disliked by their peers. Despite this, socially withdrawn children are just as likely to have a best friend as other children.

low self-esteem influences are

perceived disapproval by peers and dependence on approval from others - show an emphasis of their weaknesses, downplay of strengths, and evaluating their abilities accuarely

positive self-esteem attributes

positive parent-child interactions secure attachment to parents

Some aggressive-rejected children become

provocative victims or bully-victims.

African American children - self-esteem

score lower on measures compared to white and hispanic children - experience contextual conditions such as poverty, unsafe neighborhoods, ongoing stressors, racism and discrimination.

Self esteem is influenced by...

self-evaluations and the importance children assign to the particular ability that's evaluated

Although lacking close friends is not associated with maladjustment,

social acceptance by the peer group influences children's adjustment

Peer rejection further hinders

social development by depriving children of opportunities to learn and practice social skills such as interacting with other children, resolving conflict, and regulating emotions. Peer rejection is associated with short- and long-term problems, such as loneliness, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, low academic achievement, and, in adolescence, delinquency and school dropout. Chronic peer rejection is associated with high levels of activity in regions of the brain linked with detecting and experiencing the emotional distress caused by social exclusion. Moreover, the experience of chronic rejection in childhood is associated with heightened neural responses to exclusion in adolescence.

internal attribution

success tend to be more common in Westerners

Boys who bully

tend to be above average in size, use physical aggression, and target both boys and girls.

Girls who bully

tend to be verbally assertive, target other girls, and use verbal or psychological methods of bullying that threaten relationships.

Parents in many Asian countries

tend to hold a growth mindset and to view the application of effort as a moral responsibility. - tend to focus more on children's failure in order to encourage them to make corrections.

school-age children

tend to name only a handful of friends - Older children, especially girls, tend to have fewer, but closer, friends, and by age 10, most children report having a best friend

Children raised by parents with a fixed view of abilities

tend to view their own ability as fixed and unchangeable and more likely to show a learned helplessness orientation - their parents tend to provide few opportunities for children to improve & ignore positive changes that they show as well as few opportunities to problem-solve or intervening when a child tries a challenging task may inhibit children's desire to succeed and may foster helplessness

Students who believe that their teachers provide a positive learning environment

tend to work harder in class and show higher achievement than students who lack this belief

Successful interventions stress

that victimized children are not to blame for the abuse.

Peer acceptance

the degree to which a child is viewed as a worthy social partner by his or her peers - vital sources of self-validation, self-esteem, and confidence

Bullying can be motivated by

the pursuit of high status and a powerful dominant position in the peer group.

Achievement motivation

the willingness to persist at challenging tasks and meet high standards of accomplishment - sense of industry and sense of self influences Achievement motivation - how children explain their own successes and failures influences their achievement which is measured by internal attributions(like studying) or external attributions(like luck)

younger children describe

themselves in all-or-none terms

When students view their teachers as unsupportive

they are more likely to attribute their performance to external factors, such as luck or the teacher, and to withdraw from class participation. - As students' achievement declines, they further doubt their abilities, creating a vicious cycle between helpless attributions and poor achievement.

Bullies report choosing their victims because

they do not like them, often because the victims are perceived as different, as more quiet and cautious than other children

Both aggressive-rejected and withdrawn-rejected children are similar in that

they misinterpret other children's behaviors and motives, have trouble understanding and regulating their emotions, are poor listeners, and are less socially competent than other children.

bully-victims were more likely

to experience anxiety and depression in late adolescence and in early adulthood—and even into middle adulthood.

North American parents tend

to pay attention to children's success and its relevance for self-esteem. U.S. mothers offered more praise after the child succeeded, but the Chinese mothers tended to point out poor performance and offer task-oriented statements to make the child try harder (e.g., "You only got 7 of 10"). After the mothers left the room, the children continued to play, and the Chinese children showed greater improvements in performance than the U.S. children

Compared to children who do not have friends of other races, children in cross-race friendships tend

to show a lower tolerance for excluding others and are less prone to peer victimization also they feel socially and emotionally safer and less vulnerable at school

self concept shift from concrete descriptions of behavior to

trait-like psychological constructs such as popular, smart, and good looking - like most older children, a child's self-concept focuses on competencies and personality traits rather than specific behaviors.

cyberbullying is associated

with anxiety, depression, academic problems, and behavioral problems. Cyberbullying may be more damaging, as it not only co-occurs with other types of bullying but also is more difficult for victims to avoid. Cyberbullying can occur at any time of the day or any day of the week, and the victim need not be present. Victims of cyberbullying are also less likely to report their abuse or to seek help than victims of traditional bullying.

Self-esteem varies

with ethnic, contextual, and cultural factors

learned helplessness orientation

- children who respond to success and failure in maladaptive ways characterized by a fixed mindset and attribution of poor performance to internal factors - overwhelmed by challenges, are overly self-critical, feel incompetent, and avoid challenging tasks - can perpetuate poor performance - can confirm their negative views of their ability and sense of helplessness

growth mindset

- viewing their skills and characteristics as malleable or changeable