BACKGROUND: Preschool represents the budding and initial stage of bullying behavior, where perpetration of physical bullying predominates as the primary form of bullying. An in-depth understanding of the factors linked to preschool physical bullying behavior is crucial for enabling early prevention and intervention strategies.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Theory of Mind and physical bullying behavior in 4-6 years old children in kindergarten and the mediating role of peer rejection and gender in this relationship.
METHODS: Data on perpetration of physical bullying and peer rejection were obtained from 310 preschool children (age range = 52-79 months, M = 66.85, SD = 7.04) by the peer nomination method, and their Theory of Mind was measured by the Theory of Mind Development Scale.
RESULTS: The results showed that Theory of Mind negatively predicted perpetration of physical bullying in preschool children and that Theory of Mind was related to perpetration of physical bullying in preschool children only through peer rejection. Boys were also found to have a stronger association between peer rejection and perpetration of physical bullying in preschool children than girls.
CONCLUSIONS: Peer rejection may play a mediating role between Theory of Mind and perpetration of physical bullying in preschool children. In addition, the relationship between peer rejection and perpetration of physical bullying appears to be stronger for boys than for girls. This contributes to our understanding of the relationship between Theory of Mind and perpetration of physical bullying in preschool children and has implications for how bullying prevention and intervention can be tailored to the gender of young children.

BACKGROUND: In the digital age, bullying manifests in two distinct forms: traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Children\'s peer relationships are important predictors of bullying, and bullying in turn predicts peer relationships. However, few researchers have noted the bidirectional relationship between peer relationships and bullying.
METHODS: The present study used a two-wave cross-lagged longitudinal design to fill this gap. The potential sex differences were also examined in this relationship. The sample consisted of 527 Chinese children aged 8 to 12 years (M = 9.69, SD = .96; 53.5% female). Participants completed peer nominations for peer acceptance, peer rejection and social dominance, as well as self-reports of traditional bullying and cyberbullying.
RESULTS: Results showed that peer rejection at the first time point (T1) significantly and positively predicted traditional bullying perpetration, cyberbullying perpetration and cyberbullying victimization at the second time point (T2). Traditional bullying victimization at T1 significantly and negatively predicted peer acceptance and social dominance at T2. The results also revealed significant male and female differences. For instance, among boys, peer acceptance at T1 significantly and negatively predicted cyberbullying victimization at T2. In contrast, this relationship was not observed among girls. The present findings have important implications for understanding the cyclical relationship between peer relationships and bullying and providing practical guidance for improving peer relationships and reducing bullying.

Peers are important socializers of adolescent prosocial behavior. Still, the proximal cognitive and emotional process underlying this link and the sources of individual differences in sensitivity to peer influence have yet to be explored. Utilizing the gene-gene-environment (G × G × E) approach and multi-informant measurement, this study investigated how peer relationships operate to influence adolescent prosocial behavior by examining the mediating role of cognitive and emotional empathy, and the moderating role of the OXTR and DRD2 genes. The study utilized longitudinal data from a community sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 1080, Mage = 13.32 years at T1). Results showed that cognitive empathy rather than emotional empathy mediated the link between peer acceptance/rejection and prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the association among peer acceptance, cognitive empathy, and prosocial behavior was moderated by OXTR and DRD2. Specifically, adolescents with the combinations of AA/AA or G/G genotypes of OXTR/DRD2 benefited more from peer acceptance compared to their counterparts carrying other combined genotypes. The findings highlight cognitive empathy as a proximal process linking peer interaction to prosocial behavior and lend support to the interaction between oxytocinergic and dopaminergic systems on environmental sensitivity.

Few studies have explored the potential impact of teacher preferences on students\' peer relationships and their broader psycho-behavioral growth from the perspective of classroom peer ecology. To remedy this research gap, this study hypothesized and tested a serial mediation model in which teacher preference is related to adolescents\' aggressive behavior via the indirect paths of forming peer rejection and shaping rejection sensitivity. Using a longitudinal design, two-wave data were obtained from 2270 Chinese adolescents (initial age = 13.93 ± 0.59, 50.7% boys) over 6 months. The results revealed that teacher preference was negatively associated with aggressive behavior in adolescents, and the mediation model indicated peer rejection and rejection sensitivity served as serial mediators between this link. Additionally, the current study examined the unique affiliations of anxiety and anger about rejection with aggressive behavior respectively, with results supporting them as distinct constructs and highlighting the significance of research integrating both forms of rejection sensitivity. Differences were also identified regarding the role of anxious rejection sensitivity in predicting proactive and reactive aggressive behaviors. The educational implications of these findings and directions for forthcoming research were discussed.

Facing a stressful environment of peer rejection and discrimination, Chinese migrant adolescents are at high risk of developing behavior problems while receiving insufficient family support. In this context, the current study aimed to explore the pathway from peer rejection to adolescent behavior problems via the mediating role of delinquent peer affiliation and with the moderating roles of parental company and parental monitoring taken into consideration. A sample of 2041 migrant adolescents (46.2% female, mean age = 13.595) was drawn from the first and second waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) for running a moderated mediation model. The results demonstrated that peer rejection positively predicted behavior problems through the mediator of delinquent peer affiliation (indirect effect = 0.007, 95% CI = [0.003, 0.014]). This mediating mechanism was moderated by parental company and by parental monitoring. Our study deepened the theoretical understanding and application of the general strain theory by showing how the interaction of peer stressors and parenting elements affected the behavior of migrant adolescents in a Chinese context. Further studies could pay more attention to the dynamic interplay between the family and peer systems, especially for rejected and marginalized adolescent groups. Limitations and implications for future school-based and family-based practices are also discussed.

Although previous studies have assessed the association between peer rejection and aggression, the results are mixed.
This article presents a meta-analysis of the association between peer rejection and aggression types (overt vs. relational) among children and adolescents.
A total of 61 eligible studies with 70 independent effect sizes were included in the analysis (45,966 participants, Mage = 10.34, SD = 3.13).
First, random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to explore the association between peer rejection and aggression types (overt vs. relational). Next, moderation analyses were conducted based on the Q statistics for categorical variables (culture, reporting method of peer rejection, reporting method of aggression) and the meta-regression analyses for continuous variable (age).
Peer rejection was positively correlated with overall aggression (r = 0.42, 95 % CI [0.38, 0.47], p < 0.001), overt aggression (r = 0.46, 95 % CI [0.38, 0.54], p < 0.001) and relational aggression (r = 0.43, 95 % CI [0.35, 0.51], p < 0.001). This correlation was positive for each type when controlling for other form of aggression. Moderation analyses suggested that reporting method of aggression (self-report vs. peer-nomination vs. adult-report vs. observation), reporting method of peer rejection (self-report vs. peer-nomination vs. adult-report) and culture (collectivist vs. individualist) were moderators of the association between peer rejection and overall aggression. Culture moderated the association between peer rejection and overt aggression, while age moderated the association between peer rejection and relational aggression.
The findings showed a strong positive association between peer rejection and aggression, although this association varied by aggression type and other moderating variables.

Behavioral genetics studies and new empirical evidence suggest that depression cannot simply be explained by the influence of single genes but that gene-gene-environment interactions are important to better understanding the etiology of depression. The present study investigated the main and interactive effects of COMT gene Val158Met polymorphism, DAT1 gene rs27072 polymorphism, and peer relationships (i.e., peer acceptance and rejection) on adolescent depressive symptoms. In a sample of 1045 Chinese Han adolescents (Mage = 12.34 ± 0.47 years, 50.1% girls), saliva samples, self-reported depressive symptoms and within-classroom peer nominations were collected. After controlling for gender, age, and SES, the three-way interaction of COMT, DAT1, and peer acceptance significantly concurrently predicted adolescent depressive symptoms. Adolescents with ValVal genotype of COMT and CC genotype of DAT1 were more sensitive to acceptance, compared to their counterparts carrying other combined genotypes. However, a similar three-way interaction was not significant in the case of peer rejection. Additionally, the split-half validation generally replicated these findings. More importantly, this study underscores complex polygenic underpinnings of depression and lends support for the gene-gene-environment interactions implicated in the etiology of depressive symptoms.

A number of studies have explored how rejection sensitivity (RS) affects the neural and physiological responses to stimuli with implicit rejection clues. Peer rejection during social interaction conveys explicit rejection feedback. The current event-related potentials (ERP) study using Chatroom task aimed to test to what extent RS modulated individuals\' psychological and neural response to explicit rejection feedback. The subjective ratings mainly demonstrated that RS modulated ostracism distress and negative mood following rejection feedback. The ERP results showed that compared with low RS individuals, both the parietal P3 and left frontal LPP responses towards rejection feedback were enhanced in high RS individuals, indicating that high RS individuals exhibit attentional bias, intense anger experience and lower emotion regulation towards rejection suggested by their neural responses. The current study provides a new insight into neural correlates of RS in the high ecological experimental context.

Through a sample of 686 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 13.73 years; 50% girls), we examined the compensatory and moderating effects of prosocial behavior on the direct and indirect associations between forms of aggression and relational victimization mediated by peer relationships among adolescent girls and boys. The results indicated that only adolescent girls\' relationally aggressive behaviors could be directly linked with their experiences of relational victimization, and both relationally and overtly aggressive adolescent boys and girls might be more often rejected by their peers, which, in turn, could make them targets of relational aggression. Next, we found that prosocial behavior indirectly counteracts the effects of aggression on relational victimization through reducing adolescents\' peer rejection and promoting adolescents\' peer attachment. In addition, relationally aggressive girls with high levels of prosocial behavior might be less rejected by peers; however, they might also have lower levels of peer attachment and be more likely to experience relational victimization. Last, adolescent boys scored higher on risks, but lower on the protective factors of relational victimization than girls, which, to some degree, might explain the gender difference in relational victimization. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.