Bullying is a serious problem in schools all around the globe, and implementing intervention strategies effective over time is still difficult, despite the consistent literature on the subject. In this study, we tested the efficiency of a 5-day intensive empathy training program in reducing bullying among third graders. The sample included three classes of third graders (N = 64, Mage = 9.45; SDage = 0.50) from a Romanian school. A 3 × 3 mixed experimental design was used where we manipulated the type of intervention (control group-no empathy training, experimental group 1-empathy training with the teacher present, and experimental group 2-empathy training without teacher present) and the time of measurement (pre-test, post-test, and 3 weeks\' follow-up). The results showed that the intervention determined a significant increase in empathy and a significant decrease in verbal bullying but only for the experimental group where the teacher was physically present in the classroom during the intervention. Moreover, the pattern of results showed that the effects of the intervention increased 21 days after it was completed, meaning that the program could have long-term effects. No significant change in physical bullying behaviors was observed.

The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth recommends specific guidance in physical activity, screen time, and sleep duration. The current research will further explore potential exposures between healthy movement and being involved in a bullying incident as a bully or a victim in a representative sample of adolescents in China. A total of 67 821 Chinese students (response rate = 98.4%) were included in this study (mean age = 13.04 years). The results showed that meeting sleep recommendation only, meeting screen time recommendation only, and meeting both these two recommendations might be protective factors against being bullied or bullying others. Meeting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recommendation only reported higher odds of being victims in all forms of bullying while meeting both MVPA and another combination of the guideline would relate to lower odds of being a bully and a bully-victim in all forms of bullying involvement.

This three-year longitudinal study examined both within- and between-person effects of moral disengagement on verbal bullying perpetration in early adolescence. Data came from the first four waves (T1-T4, Grades 4 to 7) of an ongoing longitudinal project examining social and moral correlates of bullying in Swedish schools. Participants included 2432 Swedish early adolescents (52% girls; Mage at T1 = 10.55 years). Students completed self-report measures of verbal bullying perpetration and moral disengagement. Results of a multilevel growth model showed that verbal bullying increased over time (regression coefficient for Grade was b = 0.04, SE = 0.01, p < .001). Additionally, the verbal bullying trajectories of participants with higher average levels of MD were higher (regression coefficient for MD¯ was b = 0.28, SE = 0.02, p < .001) and steeper (regression coefficient for the Grade ×MD¯ interaction was b = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p = .018), indicating that these students scored higher on verbal bullying in general and increased more in verbal bullying over time, compared to students with lower levels of average MD. Variations around one\'s own mean of MD over time was also significantly associated with concurrent changes in verbal bullying (regression coefficient for time-varying MD was b = 0.21, SE = 0.01, p < .001).

BACKGROUND: Bullying is one of the most common expressions of violence in the peer context during school years. This study investigates the prevalence of bullying and the short-term effects on students\' bullying perceptions of a preventive intervention conducted among teachers of first-grade secondary schools in Palermo, Sicily (Italy).
METHODS: Between the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 school years, a pre-post intervention study was conducted among nine school institutions, sampled and categorized by neighbourhood socioeconomic index. A questionnaire investigating physical, verbal, and indirect bullying, the role of observers, prosociality, and resiliency in bullying was administered before and after intervention with formative cascade training of the teachers of the selected classes. Three different methods (sentinel questions, the five-question method, the \'score of seven\' method) were used to detect the baseline level of bullying.
RESULTS: A total of 402 students participated in the study (72.7% response rate). A decrease in the number of bullying episodes after the intervention was reported by the students in all types of bullying explored (physical, verbal, and indirect bullying, observers, resiliency, and prosociality), with all three methods. In particular, a statistically significant decrease in all the bullying areas investigated (except for resiliency) was reported for students attending schools of an intermediate socioeconomic level.
CONCLUSIONS: Even if many school-based interventions have been implemented to reduce school bullying throughout the world, this is one of the first conducted in Europe and it assesses the effectiveness among students of an anti-bullying intervention tailored for teachers. The encouraging results in reducing the number of bullying episodes together with the low cost in terms of human and economic resources could suggest an extension of this research on a regional/national scale.

Previous research shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between being a victim of violence and experiencing high levels of psychological problems among young people. Conversely, resilience is negatively associated with psychological problems among young people in general, and this negative association is particularly strong among victims of violence. Our study examines resilience among young people (aged ≥ 18 years) who reported being victims of multiple forms of violence during childhood and adolescence using data from two national youth surveys administered in Norway in 2007 (N = 7033) and 2015 (N = 4531), respectively. We first compared the score of resilience, as measured by the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ), and the prevalence of poly-victimization, as identified by the number of young people in our study who were exposed to three of the four forms of violence (i.e., non-physical violence, witnessing violence against parents, physical violence, and sexual abuse). Second, we tested our hypothesis using our data and found that resilience-individuals\' capacity to handle adversity, as well as their use of social and cultural resources when facing adversity-moderates the association between poly-victimization and the onset of psychological problems.

Although school climate and self-efficacy have received some attention in the literature, as correlates of students\' willingness to intervene in bullying, to date, very little is known about the potential mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between classroom climate and students\' willingness to intervene in bullying. To this end, the present study analyzes whether the relationship between classroom cohesion (as one facet of classroom climate) and students\' willingness to intervene in bullying situations is mediated by self-efficacy in social conflicts. This study is based on a representative stratified random sample of two thousand and seventy-one students (51.3% male), between the ages of twelve and seventeen, from twenty-four schools in Germany. Results showed that between 43% and 48% of students reported that they would not intervene in bullying. A mediation test using the structural equation modeling framework revealed that classroom cohesion and self-efficacy in social conflicts were directly associated with students\' willingness to intervene in bullying situations. Furthermore, classroom cohesion was indirectly associated with higher levels of students\' willingness to intervene in bullying situations, due to self-efficacy in social conflicts. We thus conclude that: (1) It is crucial to increase students\' willingness to intervene in bullying; (2) efforts to increase students\' willingness to intervene in bullying should promote students\' confidence in dealing with social conflicts and interpersonal relationships; and (3) self-efficacy plays an important role in understanding the relationship between classroom cohesion and students\' willingness to intervene in bullying. Recommendations are provided to help increase adolescents\' willingness to intervene in bullying and for future research.

To examine the effects of obese/overweight status and race/ethnicity on the risk for being verbally bullied among second grade children, and to investigate if the relationship between weight status and verbal bullying varies based on race/ethnicity.
Data on second graders from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (Children = 18,130; Schools = 2419) were analyzed. Hierarchical generalized logistic modeling was used to address the objectives.
Independent of the child\'s sex, age, academic performance, family socioeconomic status, and school characteristics, obese/overweight children (relative to non-obese/overweight children) and Black children (relative to White children) were more likely to be verbally bullied. Hispanic and Asian children were less likely to be verbally bullied relative to White children. Hispanic obese/overweight children experienced less verbal bullying than White obese/overweight children.
This study documented disproportionate risks of being verbally bullied for obese/overweight US second graders. The risk of being verbally bullied was significantly greater for obese/overweight White children vs. obese/overweight Hispanic children.
Findings can inform the development of strategies to reduce verbal bullying of obese/overweight children in US elementary schools.

Bullying behavior in schools can lead to psychosocial problems. School-based interventions are important in raising student awareness, developing their skills and in planning to reduce bullying behavior.
A randomized controlled trial, using a school-based educational intervention to reduce verbal bullying, was conducted among grade 10 students in 16 urban and rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 2013. Baseline and postintervention questionnaires, developed using the Integrated Model for Behavior Change theoretical model, were used to assess changes in verbal bullying.
Postintervention there were reduced verbal bullying experiences. Improved social norms and awareness of verbal bullying were associated with reduced verbal bullying experiences and behavior. Although less likely to bully others verbally, girls were more likely to experience verbal bullying. Students with no living father were more likely to bully others verbally.
The study findings indicate that a school-based intervention can positively impact on verbal bullying experiences and behavior.