School bullying is a serious problem worldwide, but little is known about how teacher interventions influence the adoption of bullying-related student roles. This study surveyed 750 early adolescents (50.5% female; average age: 12.9 years, SD = 0.4) from 39 classrooms in two waves, six months apart. Peer ratings of classmates were used to categorize students to five different bullying-related roles (criterion: >1 SD): bully, victim, bully-victim, defender, and non-participant. Student ratings of teachers were used to obtain class-level measures of teacher interventions: non-intervention, disciplinary sanctions, group discussion, and mediation/victim support. Controlling for student- and class-level background variables, two multilevel multinomial logistic regression analyses were computed to predict students’ bullying-related roles at wave 2. In the static model, predictors were teacher interventions at wave 1, and in the dynamic model, predictors were teacher intervention changes across time. The static model showed that disciplinary sanctions reduced the likelihood of being a bully or victim, and group discussion raised the likelihood of being a defender. Mediation/victim support raised the likelihood of being a bully. The dynamic model complemented these results by indicating that increases in group discussion across time raised the likelihood of being a defender, whereas increases in non-intervention across time raised the likelihood of being a victim and reduced the likelihood of being a defender. These results show that teacher interventions have distinct effects on students’ adoption of bullying-related roles and could help to better target intervention strategies. The findings carry practical implications for the professional training of prospective and current teachers.

Evidence-based anti-bullying programs are predominantly implemented in high-income countries, although there is a clear need for bullying prevention also in low- and middle-income countries. The present study reports the effectiveness of a short and ultra-short version of the ViSC Social Competence Program that was implemented in nine Kosovar schools. The ViSC program aims to empower adolescents to recognize bullying and to intervene in bullying situations. A quasi-experimental longitudinal control group design was realized to examine the effectiveness of the two program versions regarding different forms of self-reported perpetration and victimization. The short program version was implemented in 10 classes (N= 282, 52% girls,M_age= 13.45), the ultra-short program version was implemented in 13 classes (N= 354, 46% girls,M_age= 13.28), and 23 classes (N= 613, 50% girls,M_age= 13.31) served as control group. Multilevel growth models revealed intervention effects in favor of the ultra-short version when compared to the control group regarding physical victimization. All other effects were not significant. To conclude, educational and social policies supporting the implementation of evidence-based anti-bullying programs need to be issued in low- and middle-income countries, as even ultra-short versions might be effective in contexts with limited available resources.

Self-esteem has been identified as a predictor of bullying perpetration and victimization, which, in turn, may lead to school adjustment problems. However, findings regarding the direction and strength of these associations have been inconclusive. This study aimed to resolve this by differentiating between offline and cyber contexts and various self-esteem domains. An online sample of 459 adolescents retrospectively completed measures of self-esteem domains and offline/cyber perpetration and victimization, and a subsample of 194 adolescents also completed measures of loneliness and school adjustment. A mediation analysis of bullying-related variables on the effect of self-esteem domains on school adjustment indicated that offline victimization was the only significant mediator. Positive indirect effects were found for social and emotional self-esteem, and negative indirect effects were found for school performance-related self-esteem. Furthermore, person-oriented analyses examined differences in bullying-related roles regarding self-esteem domains, loneliness, and school adjustment. Victim groups showed lower self-esteem in many domains, but cyber victims showed higher body-related self-esteem. Bullies showed lower school performance-related but higher social self-esteem. Both bullies and victims showed lower school adjustment and more loneliness. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, as the findings are relevant for teachers and could be used to develop and deploy more effective anti-bullying programs.

Humor can be both adaptive and maladaptive and plays a role in bullying victimization and school adjustment. It was hypothesized that humor styles decrease or increase victimization, which in turn affects school adjustment. Furthermore, humor might moderate effects of victimization on school adjustment. Moreover, a person-oriented approach could improve our understanding of group differences in these variables. An online questionnaire retrospectively surveyed emerging adults (N = 172; 77.2% female; mean age: 22.7 years) with respect to humor style use, bullying victimization and school adjustment. Mediation and moderation analyses were computed, and two sets of person-oriented analyses compared victims, bully-victims and noninvolved students on humor styles and school adjustment, and three latent humor-related groups (overall-high, adaptive-high and adaptive-low) on victimization and school adjustment. Victimization fully mediated the positive effect of affiliative humor and partially mediated the negative effect of self-defeating humor on school adjustment. The negative effect of victimization on school adjustment was magnified by self-defeating humor and attenuated by aggressive humor. Bully-victims used both aggressive and self-defeating humor more frequently, and victims used aggressive and affiliative humor less frequently. Furthermore, both victims and bully-victims showed lower school adjustment. Finally, the adaptive-high humor group showed lower victimization and higher school adjustment. Implications for school interventions are discussed.

It has been argued that adaptive conflict management styles may protect students against bullying victimization and against negative effects of ongoing victimization on psychological school adjustment. Moreover, maladaptive conflict management styles may lead to victimization or intensify negative effects of victimization on school adjustment. Mediation and moderation models were computed to test these effects. Furthermore, a person-oriented approach compared noninvolved students, victims, and bully-victims regarding conflict management styles and school adjustment. A total of 172 individuals (77.2% female, mean age: 22.7 years) completed a retrospective online questionnaire about conflict management styles, bullying victimization and school adjustment during their school years. In the mediation model, conflict management styles were not associated with victimization, but there was a positive direct effect of the integrating style on school adjustment. In the moderation model, the integrating style moderated the negative effect of victimization on school adjustment but did not buffer against the negative effects when victimization was high. Person-oriented comparisons showed that victims used the obliging style more often than bully-victims. Furthermore, victims and bully-victims showed lower school adjustment than noninvolved students. Overall, results corroborate the view that school bullying is qualitatively different from normal peer conflicts. Implications for researchers, policymakers, school principals and teachers are discussed.

Despite its critical role for successful student learning, providing adequate teacher feedback is still a major issue during clinical education. In human medical education, the implementation of clinical encounter cards (CECs) has led to more frequent, timely, and structured teacher feedback. The present study aimed to introduce student-initiated CECs in a veterinary medical setting (clinical rotations). A total of 24 students were randomly assigned to a control group (standard rotations) and an intervention group where they had to ask for teacher feedback using CECs. The feasibility of implementing CECs was evaluated by examining the content of the completed CECs and by using anonymous student and teacher questionnaires. In addition, acceptance of the intervention and changes in feedback behavior were examined from both the teachers' and students' perspectives. Overall, it was shown that using CECs is not only feasible in a veterinary clinical setting but also conducive to more frequent and constructive teacher feedback. However, some teachers postponed completing the CECs due to time pressure, leading to less direct and timely feedback. Moreover, students felt more comfortable asking for feedback from less experienced, younger teachers, and teachers' quantitative ratings and open commentaries seemed to be affected by leniency bias. Finally, a focus group including teachers and students discussed these results in light of their practical experiences. This led to a streamlining of the implementation process and optimizations to facilitate future large-scale implementation. The study has implications for veterinary educators wishing to improve feedback in their institution.