Session: Improving the Precision of Anti-Bullying Interventions Via Targeting Individual and Classroom Level Risk Factors (Society for Prevention Research 24th Annual Meeting)

SESSION INTRODUCTION: The goal of this symposium is to present a series of innovative papers that examine individual and classroom level risk factors for involvement in bullying and victimization. Bullying intervention programs have been described as “disappointing” (Stassen Berger, 2007) with many evaluations producing only modest effects at best. These modest impacts may be in part due to a limited understanding of the complexity of the classroom and school ecologies and mechanisms of behavioral change over time. To that end, the following papers reveal important nuances in understanding individual and classroom level risk factors that can be used to refine and improve the precision of anti-bullying intervention strategies. This symposium supports the conference theme of Epidemiology and Etiology, by examining individual and ecological risk factors for bullying and peer victimization involvement and identifying important targets for prevention and intervention.

The first paper, “The Effect of Bullying and Victimization on Cognitive Empathy Development during the Transition to Middle School”, examines the naturally-occurring changes in cognitive empathy during the transition from elementary to middle school, and explores the effect of bullying and victimization involvement on changes in cognitive empathy over time, specifically during this school transition. The findings suggest that improving cognitive empathy skills via preventive interventions prior to the transition from elementary to middle school may reduce bullying behavior and assist youth in making a more successful transition.

The second paper, “Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations between Psychosocial Risk Factors and Peer Victimization among Elementary School Children”, examines concurrent and longitudinal associations between psychosocial risk factors and verbal, relational, physical, and cyber forms of bullying victimization. Few investigations have examined risk factors by form, especially cyber forms of bullying among elementary school students. Results reveal varying patterns by the form of bullying exposure and thus suggest different targets for prevention and intervention may exist by form.  

The third paper, “Classroom-Level Differences in Child-Level Bullying Experiences: An Application of Multilevel Latent Class Analysis”, examines whether children's experiences with bullying and peer victimization systematically differ at the classroom level. Results suggest five distinct child-level victimization-bullying classes and two distinct mixtures of child-level classes at the classroom level, suggesting important classroom level differences in bully/victim subgroup composition and potential classroom level targets for prevention and intervention.

At the conclusion of the presentations, the discussant will offer summary remarks and moderate a discussion on the papers presented and on improving anti-bullying intervention strategies.