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Distinguishing between physical and social aggression, this study aimed to examine whether the predictive effect of aggression on resource control is moderated by prosocial behavior and corresponds to a linear or a curvilinear trend. Moderating effects of children's social preference among peers and child sex in this context were also tested.

Based on a sample of 682 kindergarten children (348 girls; average age 72.7 months, 3.6 SD), multilevel regressions revealed additive linear effects of social preference and prosociality on resource control.

Moderate (but not high) levels of social aggression also facilitated resource control for disliked children. There was no such threshold effect for well‐liked children, who increasingly controlled the resource the more socially aggressive they were. In contrast, physical aggression hampered resource control unless used very modestly.

The present study has a number of positive features. First, the distinction between physical and social aggression improves our understanding of the relation between aggression and social competence and sketches a more differentiated picture of the role of different forms of aggression in resource control. Second, this study combines the concept of resource control with the concept of social preference and investigates curvilinear effects of aggression. Third, the direct observation of resource control in the Movie Viewer increases the internal validity of this study.

The purpose of this study was to test a new approach to deviancy training, that is, the shaping and reinforcing of disruptive behaviors in social interaction, which considers not only reinforcement, but also the modeling processes involved, as well as children's roles as either providers or receivers of the training.

Using teacher reports and observations from a semi-naturalistic experimental setting with young children, the authors examined the prevalence of provided and received modeling and positive reinforcement, as well as the concurrent contribution of behavior problems on these processes in friendship dyads using a convenience sample of six-year-old twins (N=783; 386 boys). Frequency analyses and linear and logistic regressions were conducted.

Results indicated that modeling and positive reinforcement – provided and received – were prevalent in this low-risk sample, that behavior problems were associated mainly with provided dimensions, and that deviancy training processes were also displayed between disruptive and non-disruptive children.

Findings are relevant to peer-oriented programs designed to prevent antisocial behaviors. Prevention should target these mixed friendships where deviant behavior likely begins.

This study provides preliminary support for a new measure of deviancy training, underscores the importance of the roles taken by children, and shows that deviancy training takes place between disruptive and non-disruptive young children.

The purpose of this paper is to examine naturally occurring episodes of aggressive interaction among adolescents in residential correctional programmes. The aims of our study were twofold. First, the development of a new camera-glasses method, and second, the method's applicability in the study of aggressive adolescents in residential care.

Based on a mobile assessment strategy, the paper developed a new methodology for in-the-field recording of environmental conditions in which aggressive behaviour arises. The authors used glasses with an inbuilt camera worn by research subjects to record observational data. In the particular study presented here the authors used camera-glasses to observe the material and social environments of eight aggressive adolescents in a residential treatment programme and of a contrast group of four non-aggressive adolescents living at home.

The crucial methodological findings are that camera-glasses successfully record the social and physical environments of aggressive adolescents from their perspective in relation to their environment and interlocutors, and that the camera-glasses method does not generate high reactivity. The results show that aggressive adolescents in residential care use direct and reactive forms of aggression, and that their aggressive behaviours occur predominantly in settings with limited adult supervision. In residential care aggressive behaviour is, paradoxically, an effective strategy for individuals to gain regard and social status among peers and to push their interests among staff.

An obvious limitation is the reliance on a small sample which limits the generalisation of the results.

For residential facilities it is crucial to reduce the occurrence of low supervised social situations in order to minimise peer contagion. Furthermore, staff and educators need to be trained to use deescalating response strategies when dealing with adolescents’ aggressive behaviour, precisely deescalating strategies which neither involve acquiescence nor surrender to pressure.

Our investigations demonstrate that the camera-glasses method is a promising new assessment technique which has applicability in various fields of adolescent research.

This paper aims to examine the role of bullying victimization in predicting psychopathology, encompassing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risk of developing prodromal psychosis and emotional and behavioural problems, among in-school Nigerian adolescents.

A total of 351 junior secondary students (n = 173 males, 178 females; age range: 9–17 years) were recruited from five randomly selected public secondary schools in Nigeria. Students completed a variety of self-report measures, including a socio-demographic questionnaire, the prodromal questionnaire – brief version, the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) and the multidimensional peer victimization scale. They were also interviewed using the PTSD module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Kid Version.

Although bullying victimization was not found to predict the presence of PTSD, it predicted the risk of developing prodromal psychosis. All SDQ subscales also held significant positive associations with bullying victimization. This indicates that higher levels of victimization are associated with increased behavioural and emotional difficulties among adolescents.

The study findings add support to whole system approaches involving relevant stakeholders in health, education, social and criminal justice sectors via protective policies to address the problems of bullying in schools.

The study contributes to evidence demonstrating a need for improved understanding regarding the role of exposure to bullying victimization in predicting various forms of psychopathology. Furthermore, there is specifically a need for research with this focus in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Nigerian education system.