Claire L. Fox

Background: Research which has investigated children's attitudes to bullying has found that the majority of children display anti‐bullying attitudes. However, a small minority of children do appear to admire the bully and lack sympathy for victims of bullying. The just world belief theory has received a great deal of attention in recent years with evidence emerging in support of a two‐dimensional model distinguishing between beliefs in a just world (BJW) for self and BJW for others. BJW‐self (and not BJW‐others) has been found to uniquely predict psychological well‐being, whereas BJW‐others (and not BJW‐self) uniquely predicts harsh social attitudes and derogation of victims. Aim: The aim of the present study was to measure BJW‐self and others in a sample of UK secondary schoolchildren and to see whether BJW‐others can account for adolescents' negative attitudes towards victims of bullying. Sample: In total, 346 pupils aged 11–16 years of age (270 males, 76 females) from two schools took part in the study. Methods: The participants completed measures of BJW‐self and others, attitudes to victims of bullying, empathy, and self‐esteem on a whole class basis. Results: It was found that BJW‐others uniquely predicted adolescents' attitudes to victims but in the opposite direction to that which was predicted – high BJW were associated with stronger anti‐bullying attitudes. As predicted, BJW‐self (but not BJW‐others) was positively and uniquely correlated with self‐esteem. Conclusion: The findings are discussed in the context of research which has found that the direction of the relationship between BJW‐others and derogation of victims appears to depend on the nature of the injustice, with people with strong BJW less tolerant of severe injustices.

Despite the growth of school counselling in the UK, very few studies have examined its effectiveness. As part of a wider evaluation of the work of the NSPCC Schools Counselling Project, 219 pupils aged 11–17 years completed the TEEN CORE questionnaire before receiving counselling; 104 of these pupils also completed a questionnaire after counselling and a further 29 also completed a questionnaire three months after the end of counselling. The study found that the mean TEEN CORE score after counselling was significantly lower compared to the mean score before counselling, indicating fewer problems/less distress. Analysis of the data collected after three months (n=29) suggests that this treatment gain was maintained at follow-up. This is evidence to suggest that school counselling is effective, but this paper argues that further research is needed to identify when and for whom it is most effective.

Research has found evidence of a link between being overweight or obese and bullying/peer victimisation, and also between obesity and adjustment problems such as low self‐esteem and body dissatisfaction. Studies have also found that adjustment problems can put children at an increased risk of being bullied over time. However, to date the factors that place overweight or obese children at risk of being bullied have been poorly elucidated. Self‐report data were collected from a sample of 11–14 year olds (N = 376) about their weight status, about their experiences of three different types of bullying (Verbal, Physical and Social), their global self‐worth, self‐esteem for physical appearance, and body dissatisfaction. Overweight or obese children reported experiencing significantly more verbal and physical (but not social) bullying than their non‐overweight peers. Global self‐worth, self‐esteem for physical appearance and body dissatisfaction each fully mediated the paths between weight status and being a victim of bullying.

Previous research, primarily in North America, has found that individual factors (e.g., ‘internalising problems’) and social factors (e.g., friendship) interact to influence children's levels of peer victimisation. Some research has found that the identity of children's friends and friendship quality (as ‘protective factors’) are more important than the sheer number of friends. However, studies have produced conflicting findings. A peer nomination inventory was used to assess social skills problems, peer victimisation, peer acceptance, and several different aspects of friendship. Four hundred and forty‐nine children aged 9 to 11 years completed the inventory at two time points over the course of an academic year. Social skills problems were found to predict an increase in peer victimisation over time. Two friendship variables were found to moderate this relationship: a) number of friends, and b) the peer acceptance of the very best‐friend. The relationship was found to be weaker for those children with lots of friends and for those children with a ‘popular’ best‐friend. The findings advance understanding of the factors that promote peer victimisation. Aggr. Behav. 32:110–121, 2006.

Background. A small number of prior studies have found that victims of school bullying tend to exhibit poor social skills. Few of these have examined this issue from multiple perspectives, and there has been a focus on a restricted range of social skills. Aims. To determine the extent to which self, peers, and teachers regard victims as having poorer social skills than non‐victims across 20 behaviours/competencies. Sample. A convenience sample of 330 pupils aged between 9 and 11 years (162 girls and 168 boys) provided self‐report and peer‐report data. They were drawn from 12 classes from 6 junior schools in the UK. Additionally, 11 of the class teachers provided data. Method. Three separate methods were employed and in each case, participants were provided with 20 short statements that described a different social skill: (1) participants who were classified as either ‘victims’ or ‘non‐victims’ (using peer nominations) rated themselves on a 3‐point scale in terms of how like them each description was, (2) participants were asked to think of a victim and a non‐victim in their class and to rate both of these people on each description, and (3) teachers were asked to rate a previously identified victim and a non‐victim from their class on each description. Results. Using a direct discriminant function analysis of the self‐ratings, six of the social skills items were found to discriminate between victims and non‐victims, and the discriminant function was able to correctly classify 80% of the participants. For 18 of the items, peer ratings indicated significantly more pronounced social skills problems for victims than for non‐victims. Teacher ratings were significant for eight of the social skill items, and in each case, victims were rated as having greater problems. Conclusion. The finding that victims are perceived by three different sources to have poor social skills has important implications for interventions to support victims of bullying.