Tjeert Olthof

This experiment tested how self-views influence shame-induced aggression. One hundred and sixty-three young adolescents (M = 12.2 years) completed measures of narcissism and self-esteem. They lost to an ostensible opponent on a competitive task. In the shame condition, they were told that their opponent was bad, and they saw their own name at the bottom of a ranking list. In the control condition, they were told nothing about their opponent and did not see a ranking list. Next, participants could blast their opponent with noise (aggression measure). As expected, narcissistic children were more aggressive than others, but only after they had been shamed. Low self-esteem did not lead to aggression. In fact, narcissism in combination with high self-esteem led to exceptionally high aggression.

To examine whether bullying is strategic behavior aimed at obtaining or maintaining social dominance, 1129 9- to 12-year-old Dutch children were classified in terms of their role in bullying and in terms of their use of dominance oriented coercive and prosocial social strategies. Multi-informant measures of participants' acquired and desired social dominance were also included. Unlike non-bullying children, children contributing to bullying often were bistrategics in that they used both coercive and prosocial strategies and they also were socially dominant. Ringleader bullies also expressed a higher desire to be dominant. Among non-bullying children, those who tended to help victims were relatively socially dominant but victims and outsiders were not. Generally, the data supported the claim that bullying is dominance-oriented strategic behavior, which suggests that intervention strategies are more likely to be successful when they take the functional aspects of bullying behavior into account.

SUMMARY Children of 6, 11 and 13 years were interviewed regarding their concept of emotion. Questions were posed about the cues and the accuracy with which emotion may be identified, the strategies by which both the display and the experience of emotion may be regulated, and the effects of emotion on other psychological processes The replies indicate a marked shift in the child's concept of emotion between 6 and 11 years, but no marked changes thereafter. The youngest children focus on publicly observable components of emotion–the eliciting situation and overt behavioural reactions—while the two older groups also consider the hidden mental aspect of emotion. This changing conception of emotion manifests itself in the children's replies to questions concerning the identification, the regulation and the effects of emotion.

In two studies, the development of children's knowledge of the situations that provoke emotion was examined. In the first study, English and Dutch children aged 5, 7, 10 and 14 years were presented with 20 common emotion terms and asked to describe situations likely to provoke each emotion. For children of both nationalities, knowledge of the determinants of emotion was not restricted to emotions that can be easily linked with a discrete facial expression. It rapidly extended to more complex emotions such as pride, worry, or jealousy. A second study undertaken with children living in an isolated Himalayan village confirmed and extended these basic findings. Additional analysis of both the accuracy with which children suggested determinants, and inter-relationships among those determinants suggested that children acquire such knowledge quite abruptly for any given emotion term.

In this article, we describe the development and validation of a short (10 item) but comprehensive self-report measure of childhood narcissism. The Childhood Narcissism Scale (CNS) is a 1-dimensional measure of stable individual differences in childhood narcissism with strong internal consistency reliability (Studies 1-4). The CNS is virtually unrelated to conventional measures of self-esteem but is positively related to self-appraised superiority, social evaluative concern and self-esteem contingency, agentic interpersonal goals, and emotional extremity (Study 5). Furthermore, the CNS is negatively related to empathic concern and positively related to aggression following ego threat (Study 6). These results suggest that childhood narcissism has similar psychological and interpersonal correlates as adult narcissism. The CNS provides researchers a convenient tool for measuring narcissism in children and young adolescents with strong preliminary psychometric characteristics.

Abstract The present study was set up with two aims in mind. First, to assess the psychometric characteristics of a peer‐report measure of bullying in a Dutch sample, and second, to compare relative and absolute ways of assigning roles in the bullying process. The sample consisted of 242 children (51% boys; mean age approximately 10 years) at T1. Two years later, there were 247 children (49% boys). We made use of an adaptation of the original Participant Role Scales (PRS) Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Björkqvist et al., 1996; Salmivalli, Lappalainen and Lagerspetz, 1998) and of the Aggression and Victimization Scale [Perry, Kusel and Perry, 1988]. This scale, called the New PRS, consisted of 32 items in total. Five highly reliable scales were distinguished with the help of CFA, one for leader‐like bullying behavior, one for follower‐like bullying behavior, and scales for outsider, defender and victim. We computed the roles according to four criteria, that is, z ‐scores (a relative measure) and three different percentage scores (10%, 15% and 20%; each an absolute measure). Sociometric status was also assessed. The concordance between the various methods was moderate. Test–retest stability was also moderate. Test–retest coefficients for the scale scores were considerably higher. Links were found between the roles and sociometric status, irrespective of the method used for assigning roles. Victims were rejected, as were bullies, but defenders were popular. Gender differences indicated that boys were more often bullies or followers, and girls were more often outsiders or defenders. Absolute methods for assigning bullying roles produced fewer unclassifiable children and brought to light substantial differences between classes. Aggr. Behav. 32:343–357, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Researchers typically employ either peer or self-reports to assess involvement in bullying. In this study, we examined the merits of each method for the identification of child characteristics related to victimization and bullying others. Accordingly, we investigated the difference between these two methods with regard to their relationship with social adjustment (i.e., perceived popularity, likeability, and self-perceived social acceptance) and internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, and self-worth) in 1192 Dutch school children, aged 9 to 12 years. Perceived popularity and likeability were more strongly correlated with peer reports than self-reports, for both victimization and for bullying others. Self-perceived social acceptance correlated equally strong with peer and self- reports of victimization. Furthermore, peer reports of bullying were also correlated with self-perceived social acceptance, whereas self-reports of bullying were not. All internalizing problems showed stronger relations with self-reports than peer reports; although only the relation between self-reported victimization and internalizing problems was of practical significance. Despite our findings indicating that using only one type of report could be efficient for examining the relation between bullying behaviors and separate child characteristics, both types of report are necessary for a complete understanding of the personal and social well-being of the children involved.

Bullying is increasingly conceptualized as strategic behavior motivated by a desire to gain social dominance in the peer group. Cross-sectional research has shown that relative to their peers bullies are higher in social dominance as indexed by resource control, and are often perceived as powerful and “cool.” However, research examining the developmental relationship between bullying and resource control is lacking. The present longitudinal study fills this gap in the literature. Using a three wave design, participants (N = 394) were followed from late childhood into early adolescence. Joint trajectory analyses were used to test whether groups with distinct developmental trajectories of bullying and resource control can be identified, and how these trajectories are related. For both bullying and resource control three groups emerged (high, medium, and low), indicating that bullies and social dominants do not constitute one homogeneous group. More intense bullying is associated with higher levels of social dominance. Being consistently high in bullying is almost synonymous with being consistently high in resource control, whereas the reverse is not the case. Findings suggest that high bullying leads to the attainment of high social dominance, and do not support the view that children high in social dominance engage in bullying to maintain their dominant position. This study further underscores the need for interventions targeting mechanisms by which the peer group assigns social dominance to bullies.

A few previous studies have shown that narcissistic traits in youth are positively associated with bullying. However, research examining the developmental relationship between narcissism and bullying is lacking. Moreover, it is unclear whether narcissists constitute a homogeneous group and whether the bullying of narcissistic youth results in establishing social dominance over peers. The present work addresses these gaps. Children (N = 393; M age = 10.3; 51 % girls) were followed during the last 3 years of primary school. Person-centered analyses were used to examine whether groups with distinct developmental trajectories for narcissism and two bullying forms (direct and indirect) can be identified, and how these trajectories are related. Multiple groups emerged for all constructs examined. For girls, higher narcissism was neither related to more intense bullying, nor to higher social dominance. In contrast, highly narcissistic boys were more likely than their peers to show elevated direct bullying, and in particular elevated indirect bullying. Hence, high narcissism is a risk factor for bullying in boys, but not in girls. However, narcissism is not always accompanied by high bullying, given that many boys on the high bullying trajectories were not high in narcissism. Results show that among narcissistic youth only those who engage in high levels of bullying are high in social dominance.

The term "humiliated fury" refers to the anger people can experience when they are shamed. In Study 1, participants were randomly exposed to a prototypical shameful event or control event, and their self-reported feelings of anger were measured. In Study 2, participants reported each school day, for 2 weeks, the shameful events they experienced. They also nominated classmates who got angry each day. Narcissism was treated as a potential moderator in both studies. As predicted, shameful events made children angry, especially more narcissistic children. Boys with high narcissism scores were especially likely to express their anger after being shamed. These results corroborate clinical theory holding that shameful events can initiate instances of humiliated fury.

To understand children's peer group affiliation, this study examined to what extent children in naturally occurring groups resemble each other on bullying, likeability, and perceived popularity. Participants were fourth- to sixth-grade pupils (N = 461). Peer groups were identified using the social cognitive map procedure. Resemblance on bullying, likeability, and perceived popularity was evaluated by means of variance components models. Resemblance in peer groups was strongest for perceived popularity, followed by bullying and likeability. Moreover, resemblance on bullying could for a large part be attributed to the high-perceived popularity of the group, and to a lesser extent, to the low likeability of the group. It is concluded that children showing bullying seem to affiliate with each other most of all to attain or maintain their position in a perceived popular peer group. Results stress the importance of considering the functionality of bullying from a group perspective.

The primary aim of this study was to examine how early adolescents' anticipated guilt and shame before adults in response to wrong doing are related to each other and to their antisocial and prosocial behaviour. Measures of anticipated guilt and shame before adults were obtained from 363 10- to 13-year-old participants. Correlational analyses were used to relate participants' anticipated guilt and shame before adults to their teacher-reported aggressive behaviour, to a peer-report-based measure of antisocial behaviour that combined nomination-based measures of bullying, aggression, and unempathic behaviour, and to a peer-report-based measure of prosocial behaviour that combined nomination-based measures of helping victims of bullying and of empathic behaviour. For exploratory reasons, anticipated guilt and shame before adults were also related to a peer-nomination-based measure of participants' outsider behaviour, that is their tendency to actively avoid all involvement in bullying. Results indicated that there was a considerable positive relation between anticipated guilt and shame before adults and that both types of anticipated affective responses were negatively related to antisocial behaviour and positively to prosocial and outsider behaviour. However, when guilt and shame before adults were controlled for each other using regression analyses, only guilt was positively related to prosocial behaviour and only shame before adults was negatively related to antisocial behaviour and positively to outsider behaviour. The findings concerning anticipated guilt are interpreted as being in line with previous theoretical and empirical accounts that depict guilt as an empathy-based response that helps the individual both to inhibit antisocial behaviour and to maintain important interpersonal relationships. The findings concerning shame before adults are interpreted as suggesting that anticipated shame before an audience that values the individual's adherence to moral norms primarily serves to inhibit antisocial behaviour.

This study examined the social cognitions of outsiders and defenders about intervening in situations of victimization by bullying. Do outsiders and defenders behave differently in victimization situations because of differences in competence beliefs, or because of a selectivity effect in intervening? These issues were examined in a sample of 102 outsiders and 107 defenders who were classified into these bullying roles through a peer-nomination procedure out of a total sample of 761 10- to 14-year-old Dutch children. These children were presented with imaginary victimization events. They answered questions about their cognitions and self-efficacy beliefs about intervening in victimization situations and about handling such situations. Outsiders, compared to defenders, claimed to intervene indirectly in victimization situations rather than directly. Defenders, compared to outsiders, claimed to intervene directly in victimization situations rather than indirectly. Both outsiders and defenders claimed to be more likely to intervene when a friend was being victimized than when a neutral classmate was being victimized. Outsiders and defenders did not differ in their self-efficacy for indirect intervention, but only defenders claimed a high self-efficacy for direct intervention. Both outsiders and defenders claimed to benefit from direct help when they themselves are victimized, but only outsiders also reported to need indirect help. The results suggest that outsiders and defenders behave differently in victimization situations because of differences in competence beliefs rather than because of a selectivity effect. More generally, the results suggest that not only defenders but also outsiders have the intention to help children who are being bullied. However, outsiders' anti-bullying attempts are likely to be indirect and less firm than those of defenders.

To reduce bullying, more knowledge on children defending their victimized peers is critical. In previous work, predominantly cross‐sectional in nature, defending has typically been operationalized as one single, broad construct. However, there are good reasons to assume that attacking the bully (bully oriented defending) and comforting the victim (victim‐oriented defending) are relatively independent constructs, with potentially different correlates. This longitudinal study in the Netherlands ( N = 394; M age = 10.3) combined person‐ and variable‐centered techniques to examine relations between two different forms of defending and multiple outcome variables. In addition to the largest group scoring low on both types of defending, three subgroups emerged. A small group of “traditional,” predominantly female defenders, scored high on both forms of defending. These children were well liked and high in reputation‐based status, as indexed by perceived popularity and resource control. A larger, predominantly female second group only scored high on victim‐oriented defending. These children were also well liked, but low in reputation‐based status. The third group only scored high on bully oriented defending, and predominantly contained boys. These children were high in reputation‐based status but quite disliked, and they scored high on bullying. Findings strongly suggest that bully oriented defending does not in all cases reflect desirable interventions of empathic children. Aggr. Behav. 42:585–597, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract Based on the notion that one of the motives underlying children's antisocial behavior is their need to belong to particular peers, it was examined how each of four types of bullying‐related behavior would be related to the acceptance that 10 to 13‐year‐old children desired and received from same‐ and other‐sex children with different bullying‐related behavioral styles. Bullying‐related behavior was assessed using a peer nomination procedure. Children rated the importance of being accepted by each particular classmate and their own acceptance of these same classmates. Among boys, antisocial involvement in bullying was related to a desire to be accepted by other antisocial boys and to actually being rejected by boys in general. Among girls, antisocial involvement in bullying was related to a desire to be accepted by boys in general.

Contemporary research adopts an evolutionary theoretical perspective in which bullying is strategic behavior that is conducive to peer-group status enhancement. Within this view, a high social status (i.e., popularity) has been associated with bullying others, while a high affiliative status (i.e., preference) has been associated with defending others. This study investigated whether the associations between adolescents’ bullying role behavior (i.e., bully, follower, defender, outsider, and victim) and their peer-group status (i.e., popularity and preference) are cross-culturally similar. A multigroup path modeling analysis on a sample of Dutch ( n = 219; 53.4% boys; M age = 13.8 years, SD = 9 months) and Indian ( n = 480; 60.8% boys; M age = 13.8 years, SD = 12 months) adolescents suggested that these associations were indeed largely cross-culturally similar and consistent with previous findings, with one exception. While defending was associated with a relatively average popularity status position for Dutch adolescents, it was associated with a high popularity status position for Indian adolescents. In general, the findings are supportive of the evolutionary theoretical perspective, but the differential association between defending and popularity for Dutch and Indian adolescents seems to also require a cultural perspective.

Situational antecedents and experiential correlates of shame and guilt in children were examined by having 6‐11‐year‐olds give ratings of the extent to which two types of situations would elicit a protagonist's feelings of shame and guilt. It was predicted that one type of situation should elicit both shame and guilt, because the protagonist caused harm to another person by behaving incoherently or incompetently. The other type of situation was predicted to elicit more shame than guilt, because the protagonist behaved incoherently or incompetently without causing harm to anyone. Two types of questions were used to elicit children's ratings: in term‐based questions the emotion terms ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ were used, while in correlate‐based questions guilt and shame were alluded to by citing experiential correlates of these emotions. Children aged 9 and upward differentiated between both types of situations and between judgments of shame vs. guilt, both when giving term‐based and when giving correlate‐based ratings. There were no systematic differences in children's performance depending on whether they gave correlate‐based or term‐based judgments.

Bullying victimization may be linked to psychosis but only self-report measures of victimization have been used so far. This study aimed (a) to investigate the differential associations of peer-nominated versus self-reported victim status with non-clinical psychotic experiences in a sample of young adolescents, and (b) to examine whether different types of self-reported victimization predict non-clinical psychotic experiences in these adolescents. Method A combination of standard self-report and peer nomination procedures was used to assess victimization. The sample (n = 724) was divided into four groups (exclusively self-reported victims, self- and peer-reported victims, exclusively peer-reported victims, and non-victims) to test for a group effect on non-clinical psychotic experiences. The relationship between types of victimization and non-clinical psychotic experiences was examined by a regression analysis.Self-reported victims, along with self- and peer-reported victims, scored higher than peer-reported victims and non-victims on non-clinical psychotic experiences. Self-reports of direct relational, indirect relational and physical victimization significantly improved the prediction of non-clinical psychotic experiences whereas verbal and possession-directed victimization had no significant predictive value.The relationship between victimization and non-clinical psychotic experiences is only present for self-reported victimization, possibly indicative of an interpretation bias. The observed discrepancy between self-report and peer-report highlights the importance of implementing a combination of both measures for future research.

In an attempt to explain the inconsistent findings and overall weak relation between empathy and aggression, we focused on the role of emotional empathy (emotions of concern, compassion or sympathy toward a (potential) victim), agentic goals (the desire to be dominant during social interaction with peers) and their interplay (mediation or moderation) in the prediction of proactive aggression (learned instrumental behavior) in adolescence. Data were collected from 550 young Dutch adolescents, who filled out multiple questionnaires. Findings showed that the link between a lack of empathic concern and proactive aggression is partly mediated and moderated by agentic goals. The moderation analyses showed that the predictive value of a lack of empathic concern with regard to proactive aggression was greater when adolescents reported a stronger desire to be dominant in social situations with peers. In addition, the findings supported the assumption that the relation between empathic concern and reactive aggression (a hostile and angry response to perceived provocation) is not mediated or moderated by agentic goals. Findings were discussed in terms of their implications for future research. Aggr. Behav. 43:204–214, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract Hawley's influential resource control theory (RCT) posits that both coercive and prosocial strategies may yield social dominance, as indexed by resource control. Based on differences in youths’ relative use of these strategies, RCT a priori defines five distinct subtypes. Several studies by Hawley and colleagues have revealed substantial differences between subtypes in terms of obtained resource control and various social characteristics (e.g., agreeableness). The present longitudinal study (N = 394; M age = 10.3; SD = 0.5) expands on previous work. Firstly, because several items used to assess strategies in RCT appear to confound strategy use with the resulting benefits (resource control), we disentangled between strategy use as such and obtained resource control. Secondly whereas previous work has been exclusively cross‐sectional, the present study was longitudinal. ANOVAs comparing subgroups provided support for some core tenets of RCT, but not for others. For instance, bistrategic children scored high on both resource control and perceived popularity. However, bistrategics engaged in elevated bullying, and whereas Hawley asserts that they are proficient in balancing ‘getting ahead’ with ‘getting along’, their behavior appeared to evoke clear negative reactions in the peer group at large. Findings also showed that non‐controllers did not experience more negative outcomes than their peers across all domains.

Adolescents' defending of peers who are being bullied-or peer defending-was recently found to be a heterogeneous behavioral construct. The present study investigated individual differences in adolescents' motivations for executing these indirect, direct, and hybrid defending behaviors. In line with the literature on bullying as goal-directed strategic behavior, we adopted a social evolution theory framework to investigate whether these peer-defending behaviors could qualify as goal-directed strategic prosocial behaviors. A sample of 549 Dutch adolescents (49.4% boys; Mage = 12.5 years, SD = 0.6 years) participated in this study. Their peer reported defending behaviors (including bullying behavior as a control variable) and the following behavioral motivations were assessed: (a) agentic and communal goals (self-report), (b) prosocial and coercive social strategies (peer report), and (c) altruistic and egocentric motivations for prosocial behavior (self-report). The outcomes of hierarchical linear regression analyses suggest that adolescents' motivations for executing the different subtypes of peer defending partially overlap but are also different. While indirect defending was fostered by genuine concerns for victims' well-being, direct defending was more motivated by personal gains. Hybrid defending combined favorable aspects of both indirect and direct defending as a goal-directed, strategic, and altruistically motivated prosocial behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Getting along (i.e. to be liked) and getting ahead (i.e. to be popular) are two fundamental psychological motives that have important consequences for adolescents’ well–being. Especially antisocial behavioural tendencies, which are less well covered by the Big Five than by the HEXACO model, have been shown to differentially predict likeability and popularity. In this study, possible differential relations between personality and likeability and popularity were investigated using the HEXACO Simplified Personality Inventory and sociometric measures of likeability and popularity among 552 (12 to 14 years old) adolescents. Results showed that agreeableness was the most important likeability predictor, whereas extraversion (positive), openness to experience, honesty–humility, and agreeableness (all three negative) were the most important popularity predictors. Facet–level analyses revealed that selected HEXACO facets (greed avoidance, fearfulness, social boldness, gentleness, prudence, perfectionism, aesthetic appreciation, and altruism) most strongly—and in opposite directions—differentiated in the prediction of likeability and popularity. Furthermore, none of the expected interactions but several masking and cancellation effects were observed. The results, which are also discussed in light of interpersonal circumplex, resource control strategies, hierarchical differentiation, and socioanalytic frameworks, suggest that—among early adolescents—differential personality predictors may make it difficult to both get along and get ahead. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

This study examined the association between peer-reported bullying-related behaviours (bully, victim, outsider and defender), age, gender, autism severity and teacher-rated emotional and behavioural problems in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, using a multi-informant approach. The sample comprised 120 adolescents (11% girls, M age = 15.6 years, standard deviation = 1.89 years) attending a special school for children with autism. Results show that bullying decreased with age and was associated with behavioural problems, while victimisation was only associated with peer problems – a pattern of results comparable to studies exploring these associations in typically developing children. However, there were few associations among study variables for outsider or defender behaviours in this sample. Notably, children’s autism severity did not significantly predict bullying-related behaviours.

During adolescence, youth become more likely to avoid involvement in witnessed bullying and less likely to support victims. It is unknown whether—and how—these bystander behaviors (i.e., outsider behavior and indirect defending) are associated with adolescents' peer‐group status (i.e., popularity and social acceptance) over time. Cross‐lagged path modeling was used to examine these longitudinal associations in a sample of 313 Dutch adolescents ( M age‐T1 = 10.3 years). The results showed that status longitudinally predicted behavior, rather than that behavior predicted status. Specifically, unpopularity predicted outsider behavior and social acceptance predicted indirect defending. These findings suggest that a positive peer‐group status can trigger adolescents' provictim stance. However, adolescents may also strategically avoid involvement in witnessed bullying to keep a low social profile.

Abstract It is theorised that guilt‐ and shame‐related appraisals vary on two separate dimensions. Guilt implies an appraisal that one has either committed a moral transgression or that one has otherwise been involved in the creation of a morally wrong outcome. Shame implies one's appraisal that the current event or condition reflects negatively on one's identity. To test these claims, 206 7‐ to 16‐year‐old children gave shame and guilt ratings of three types of events that were drawn from the domain of physical illness and that were designed to elicit primarily guilt, primarily shame, or both emotions. The 12‐year‐olds and older children's ratings were fully consistent with our hypothesis. Younger children's greatest difficulty was in not attributing shame to protagonists who were involved in causing a moral wrong without there being the threat of an unwanted identity.

While both outsiders and defenders have antibullying attitudes, only defenders have the reputation to defend victims. However, outsiders—despite their reputation of avoiding involvement in bullying—do receive some defender nominations and thus defend victims at least occasionally. This study investigated the relationship between these behavioral reputations and social-cognitive antecedents of students’ provictim intervention decision: Is provictim intervention related to a cost-reward analysis or to an analysis based on the presence and reactions of others? A sample of 489 Dutch early adolescents ([Formula: see text] age = 11.5 years) was presented a scenario in which they were to imagine being witness to victimization. Through a counterfactual thinking item procedure, the relationships between students’ reputations and social cognitions about antecedents of provictim intervention were investigated. Distress awareness and anticipated guilt and shame for not helping victims positively predicted defender behavior. Practical implications with regard to promoting defender behavior in outsiders are discussed.

This study investigated personality correlates of early adolescents’ tendency to either defend victims of bullying or to avoid involvement in bullying situations. Participants were 591 Dutch fifth- and sixth-grade students ([Formula: see text] = 11.42 years). Hierarchical regression models were run to predict these students’ peer-reported defender and outsider behavior by their self-reported Big Five and Reinforcement Sensitivity scores. Agreeableness (i.e., politeness) positively predicted both behaviors. Emotional stability (i.e., impulse control) positively and extraversion (i.e., dominance) negatively predicted only outsider behavior. Finally, punishment sensitivity positively and reward sensitivity negatively predicted only outsider behavior. While agreeableness seems conducive to executing provictim interventions, lacking in dominance and a strong impulse control make actively avoiding involvement in bullying situations more likely. The latter also holds for early adolescents who are afraid of punishment and unresponsive to rewards. The findings suggest that antibullying interventions aiming at promoting defending in outsiders need to take the influence of personality into account.

Abstract Two age groups of children (6- and 10-year-olds) were told stories that could lead to a simultaneous experience of two different emotions. In half of these situations both of the impulses were negative; in the other half, one was positive and the other negative. The 6-year-olds were inclined to ignore one of the two emotion impulses, especially when the two emotions were of opposite kinds. Children's simultaneous experience of more than two emotions led to speculation about the origin of new emotions out of the blending of emotions. On the basis of a simple intensity index with every emotion, we could also investigate further the mutual intensity and influence of simultaneously occuring emotions.

When faced with shame, children can either respond in submissive ways to withdraw from their environment or in externalizing ways to oppose their environment. This study tested the hypothesis that fragile‐positive views of self predispose children to respond in externalizing ways to shame situations. Narcissism, actual and perceived social preference, global self‐worth and propensity towards externalizing shame responding were measured in 122 pre‐adolescent children. As expected, results revealed that narcissism, in contrast to global self‐worth, was associated with externalizing shame responding. In addition, actual but not perceived social preference was inversely related to externalizing shame responding, suggesting that the social self‐perceptions of children prone to employ externalizing shame responses may be inflated. Discussion focuses on the self‐regulatory function of externalizing shame responses.

The peer environment is among the most important factors for children's behavioral development. However, not all children are equally influenced by their peers, which is potentially due to their genetic make-up. The dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) is a potential candidate gene that may influence children's susceptibility to the peer environment. In the present study, we explored whether variations in the DRD4 gene moderated the association between children's social standing in the peer group (i.e., social preference among classmates) with subsequent conduct problems and prosocial behavior among 405 (51% females) elementary school children followed annually throughout early adolescence (ages 9-12 years). The behavioral development of children with and without the DRD4 7-repeat allele was compared. The results indicated that children who had higher positive social preference scores (i.e., who were more liked relative to disliked by their peers) showed less conduct problem development in subsequent years relative to children who had lower positive social preference scores. In contrast, children who had more negative preference scores (i.e., who were more disliked relative to liked among peers) showed more conduct problem development in subsequent years, relative to children who had less negative preference scores. However, these effects only occurred when children had a 7-repeat allele. For children who did not have a 7-repeat allele, the level of social preference was not associated with subsequent conduct problems. No evidence for gene-environment interaction effects for prosocial behavior was found. The implications for our understanding of conduct problem development and its prevention are discussed.

Using data from 2413 Dutch first-year secondary school students (M age=13.27, SD age=0.51, 49.0% boys), this study investigated as to what extent students who according to their self-reports had not been victimized (referred to as reporters) gave victimization nominations to classmates who according to their self-reports had been victimized (referred to as receivers). Using a dyadic approach, characteristics of the reporter-receiver dyad (i.e., gender similarity) and of the reporter (i.e., reporters' behavior during bullying episodes) that were possibly associated with reporter-receiver agreement were investigated. Descriptive analyses suggested that numerous students who were self-reported victims were not perceived as victimized by their non-victimized classmates. Three-level logistic regression models (reporter-receiver dyads nested in reporters within classrooms) demonstrated greater reporter-receiver agreement in same-gender dyads, especially when the reporter and the receiver were boys. Furthermore, reporters who behaved as outsiders during bullying episodes (i.e., reporters who actively shied away from the bullying) were less likely to agree on the receiver's self-reported victimization, and in contrast, reporters who behaved as defenders (i.e., reporters who helped and supported victims) were more likely to agree on the victimization. Moreover, the results demonstrated that reporters gave fewer victimization nominations to receivers who reported they had been victimized sometimes than to receivers who reported they had been victimized often/very often. Finally, this study suggested that reporter-receiver agreement may not only depend on characteristics of the reporter-receiver dyad and of the reporter, but on classroom characteristics as well (e.g., the number of students in the classroom).

This study examined the frequency of bullying, victimisation and defending behaviours among children with autism spectrum disorder and normal intelligence, using both self-report and peer-report information. Peer-report and self-report data were collected on a single classroom of 26 early adolescent boys attending a special school for children with autism and compared with 23 typically developing boys attending a single mainstream secondary school. Results showed that self- and peer-reported bully and victimisation rates did not differ between boys with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing boys. However, self-reported defending behaviour was less likely to be reported by boys in the autism spectrum disorder school compared to boys in the mainstream school, although there was no such difference for peer-reported defending.

To understand the emotional predicament in children with recently diagnosed idiopathic or cryptogenic epilepsy.We used the well-tried method of structured projection for the first time in children with epilepsy. Thirty-six children with epilepsy, aged 7-15 years (mean age, 9.5 years) and in 35 control children aged 7-15 years (mean age, 9.4 years), attributed shame and guilt in relation to three types of situation (non-illness related, illness related, and epilepsy related). Children were evaluated twice: shortly after diagnosis, before antiepileptic drug (AED) use and after an interval of 3 months.Children with epilepsy and healthy controls were similar in their way of attributing shame and guilt. However, the type of situation was of influence: Both children with epilepsy and healthy children attributed more shame to incompetence due to epilepsy than to incompetence due to other illnesses.Increased affective problems in childhood epilepsy cannot be explained by excessive attribution of shame and guilt, affects known to be important precursors of psychopathology, yet both healthy children and children with epilepsy attribute more shame to epilepsy than to other illnesses. Epilepsy is not like any other disease.

Abstract Adolescents' involvement in bullying situations is—at least partially—personality trait‐activated. Although some studies investigated personality correlates of bullying and being victimized, little is known about personality correlates of bystander responses (i.e., reinforcing, outsider behavior, indirect defending, and direct defending). The present study investigated whether Dutch adolescents' self‐reported HEXACO personality traits could explain their peer‐reported involvement in bullying ( N = 552; M age = 13.4 years, SD = 0.8 years). The results show that bullying was negatively related to honesty‐humility, emotionality, agreeableness (for boys specifically), and openness, whereas reinforcing was only negatively related to honesty‐humility and openness. Conversely, direct defending and outsider behavior were positively related to honesty‐humility, emotionality, and openness, whereas indirect defending was only positively related to emotionality and openness. Furthermore, reinforcing was positively related to extraversion (for boys only), whereas outsider behavior was negatively related extraversion and positively to conscientiousness. Finally, being victimized was positively related to emotionality and negatively to extraversion. These findings contribute to our understanding of the heterogeneity in adolescents' involvement in bullying and fit the view of bullying and defending as strategic and goal‐directed behavior. Implications for bullying prevention programs are discussed.

Knowledge of the integration of successive emotions was tested in 7- and 12-yr.-old children by presenting them stories in which an affectively charged target-situation was preceded either by an affectively neutral situation or by an affectively charged initial situation that was opposite in valence to the target situation. Children indicated the emotion they would feel in the target-situation by choosing one of five schematically presented facial expressions as well as by giving the reason for their choice. Older children's reports of affect in the target-situation were influenced more by the initial affective situation than were younger children's reports. Age-related differences were especially clear in girls' reports. It was concluded that there are age-related differences in children's awareness of the enduring character of emotions across situations.

The present study examined the understanding of emotional transfer in 11 children with autism, 20 children with PDD-NOS and 31 typically developing children, aged 6 to 12 years. Children were asked about their emotional responses to successive, conflicting emotional situations. All children reported that preceding emotional situations would influence their emotional response towards a successive situation. Children from the typically developing group reported a stronger influence of preceding negative versus positive emotions. However, children with autism reported equal effects of preceding positive and negative emotions, and children with PDD-NOS were relatively unaffected by the preceding emotions. These findings may indicate a scripted understanding of emotions in children with autism in contrast to a more personalized understanding of typically developing children.

In theoretical analyses of early mother–child interaction, it has been argued that interaction should be studied in its flow over time, and that the behaviour of each interactant is likely to be non-linearly determined. The mother–child dyad can be seen as a non-linear dynamic system, the development of which is determined by the mutual relations between its elements. The present study is based on the idea that computer simulations can be used to find out what kind of empirical implication these ideas have. Accordingly, we describe two non-linear dynamic systems-based models for simulating mother–child interaction, i.e. a connectionist network model and a logistic growth model. Three determinants of the nature of the interaction, i.e. the child's irritability, the mother's sensitive responsiveness, and the intensity of an external stressor bothering the child, are varied systematically. Although the results of both simulations differed considerably, they shared the fact that small changes in stressor intensity produced abrupt changes from one type of interaction to another. In addition, increasing stressor intensity sometimes had the paradoxical effect of resulting in less, rather than more, distress on the side of the child. Though irritability and responsiveness were varied in a less fine-grained way than stressor intensity, the results suggest that similarly small differences in these dimensions at different parts of the dimension's scale range have differentially strong effects on the nature of the interaction. It is concluded that these simulations help us to specify the nature of empirically researchable phenomena that are to be expected, given the assumptions listed above. Further elaboration of the models and comparison with longitudinal empirical data is needed to answer further theoretical and practical questions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study examined children's and young adults' use of three mental capacity criteria for treating an entity as one to which moral subjects have moral obligations, that is, as having moral status. In line with philosophical theorizing, these criteria were the capacity to (1) perceive; (2) suffer; and (3) think. In this study, 116 respondents aged 9 to 18 years old gave moral judgments and guilt and shame attributions in response to stories about perpetrators whose behaviour negatively affected entities with different mental capacities. The moral judgments revealed that 9‐year‐old children assigned moral status primarily on the basis of the victimized entity's ability to suffer. Eleven‐year‐old children also used the ability to suffer, but they assigned additional moral status when the victimized entity was able to perceive. Young adults also used perception as a criterion, but they assigned additional moral status when the victimized entity was simultaneously able to suffer and able to think. When compared to their moral judgments, the moral emotion attributions of respondents of all age groups were more strongly affected by the victimized entity's ability to think.

a Department of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands b Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands c Department of Special Education, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands d Department of Developmental Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands e Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands f Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

FERGUSON, TAMARA J.; OLTHOF, TJEERT; LUITEN, ANNEMIEKE; and RULE, BRENDAN GAIL. Children's Use of Observed Behavioral Frequency versus Behavioral Covariation in Ascribing Dispositions to Others. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 2094-2105. The information that children use to make dispositional attributions was assessed. 5-13-year-olds received covariation (consistency, distinctiveness) and frequency information about a boy's interpersonally harmful behavior in 3 conditions. Results for children's trait adjective ratings and predictions of the boy's causal responsibility for subsequent property damage revealed that frequency information use decreased while covariation information use increased with age, although use of covariation information appeared at a younger age for adjective ratings than for prediction judgments. Analysis of children's descriptions of the boy revealed that some of the kindergartners and first graders referred to the stability of the boy's behavior across time, people, and situations. Since stability acknowledgment was condition-dependent, it was concluded that even young children form impressions of a person's stable characteristics when the information to which they are normally sensitive is available.

Abstract The present study is an examination of sex differences in the sources of annoyance that partners in close relationships might experience as a result of each other's behavior. To test hypotheses derived from S. E. Cross and L. Madson's (1997) self-construal theory and from D. M. Buss's (1989) evolutionary psychology-based model, men and women of varying ages and educational levels were asked to rate how annoyed they would be with each of 13 potentially annoying behaviors of their intimate partner. Results were consistent with self-construal theory in that relationship-threatening behaviors were more annoying to women than to men and autonomy threatening behaviors were more annoying to men than to women. Results were also consistent with evolutionary psychology in that aggressive behaviors were more annoying to women than to men and sexual withholding was relatively more annoying to men than to women. Sex differences in annoyance with relationship-threatening, autonomy-threatening, and reproductive strategy behaviors were independent of age and education level, although these factors did affect respondents' annoyance when partners were unemotional, sloppy, or pleased with their own appearance. Results showed that sources of annoyance in intimate relationships should not only be studied from an evolutionary perspective but from the perspectives of social, personality, and developmental psychology as well.

The potential cognitive basis for anger in children was investigated by having 5-, 6-, 9-, 11-, and 15-year-old children offer moral evaluations and anger judgments about 8 incidents of property damage that differed in terms of the perpetrator's personal responsibility. Personal responsibility was manipulated by varying the events in terms of 3 dimensions: avoidability, intentionality, and motive acceptability. Results showed that these dimensions similarly affected children's moral- and anger-related judgments. Children's use of the personal responsibility dimensions was also associated with giving lower anger judgments, which suggests that anger instigation to property damage is moderated by the ability to take a normative perspective on transgressions.

Relations between kindergarten‐aged children's cognitions, self‐reported emotions, and expressive behaviour regarding an emotion‐eliciting event were examined by investigating 32 Dutch children's reactions to meeting “Sinterklaas”. who they think brings present for children, but who might also punish them. Measures included cognitions about Sinterklaas, emotion self‐reports, and expressive behaviour when meeting Sinterklaas. Girls', but not boys', self‐reports were related to their expressive behaviour. Boys' cognitions were not related to their emotions, whereas girls' cognitions and emotions were related inversely. That is girls who reported the most positive cognitions about Sinterklaas showed the most, rather than the least, fear.

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ResumenEn un estudio longtudinal, 34 díadas madre-niño fueron registradas en vídeo cada año en dos contextos distintos (edades de los niños, 3, 4, 5 y 6 años). El mismo procedimiento se llevó a cabo con los profesores de los niños. El objetivo del estudio era describir las similitudes y las diferencias del estilo interattivo de madres y profesores en edades comprendidas entre los 3–6 años, y explorar la influencia de los comportamientos y las creencias maternas en la competencia cognitiva y el rendimiento escolar de sus hijos a los 4, 6 y 10 años de edad. En la interacción con sus profesores, los niños tomaron la iniciativa menos a menudo que con sus madres, respondiendo más frecuentemente a las preguntas del profesor. Los profesores usaron más frecuentemente que las madres la transmisión de información y el distanciamiento. Nuestra interpretación es que la mayoría de los niños adoptaron el papel de alumno en la interacción con su profesor. Se encontró una relación moderadamentepotente entre las estrategias de distanciamiento de las madres (a los 4 años) y el funcionamiento cognitivo de los niños a los 4 y 6 años de edad, y una relación relativamente potente entre las creencias de las madres y el rendimiento escolar y cognitivo de los niños a los 10 años. A largo plazo, las ideas y actitudes de las madrespredijeron el rendimiento cognitivo de los niños mejor que las interacciones madre-hijo.

Infant and Child DevelopmentVolume 9, Issue 2 p. 85-89 Research Article Theory and mathematics in building dynamic systems models: what prevails? A reply to van der Maas and Raijmakers E. Saskia Kunnen, Corresponding Author E. Saskia Kunnen [email protected] Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The NetherlandsDepartment of Development Psychology, Utrecht University, Postbus 80, 140 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands===Search for more papers by this authorTjeert Olthof, Tjeert Olthof Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this authorJan Boom, Jan Boom Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this author E. Saskia Kunnen, Corresponding Author E. Saskia Kunnen [email protected] Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The NetherlandsDepartment of Development Psychology, Utrecht University, Postbus 80, 140 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands===Search for more papers by this authorTjeert Olthof, Tjeert Olthof Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this authorJan Boom, Jan Boom Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this author First published: 23 June 2000 https://doi.org/10.1002/1522-7219(200006)9:2<85::AID-ICD215>3.0.CO;2-MCitations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume9, Issue2June 2000Pages 85-89 RelatedInformation

La emocion de verguenza implica una evaluacion negativa por parte del yo. Tradicionalmente, la mayoria de estudios sobre la verguenza han partido de la base de que el yo evaluado coincide plenamente con el yo que evalua. Pero esta asuncion no tiene en cuenta la posibilidad de que el yo individual sea lo suficientemente interdependiente (Markus y Kitayama, 1991) para interpretar las transgresiones de los familiares o amigos como un reflejo negativo en el propio yo, y que por lo tanto, aparezca la verguenza. Si tenemos en cuenta que las culturas difieren en la construccion independiente o interdependiente del yo, podriamos pensar que las culturas tambien se diferenciaran en el grado de verguenza experimentado por el comportamiento de los sujetos con los que se asocia. Con el objetivo de explorar esta cuestion, se entrevisto a 35 adolescentes espanoles y a 42 adolescentes holandeses de 12-13 anos de edad, sobre sus sentimientos de verguenza ante las transgresiones sociales y morales cometidas por (a) un companero de clase, (b) un primo, (c) el mejor amigo, (d) un hermano o hermana, y (e) el participante mismo. Los resultados indican que las transgresiones de los demas elicitan un sentimiento de verguenza considerable en ambos grupos, aunque mientras los sujetos espanoles informan de una mayor experiencia de verguenza ante las transgresiones de un hermano/a frente a las de un amigo, los sujetos holandeses experimentan el patron inverso. Estos resultados se comentan en terminos de diferencias culturales en cuanto a la importancia del ?yo extendido?: familiares versus amigos.