title: Seek help from teachers or fight back? Student perceptions of teachers' actions during conflicts and responses to peer victimization.
abstract: Previous research has shown that teachers' actions when addressing conflict on school grounds can shape adolescent perceptions regarding how well the school manages victimization. Our objective in this study was to determine how these perceptions influenced the likelihood that adolescent students would react to victimization scenarios by either seeking help from school authority or physically fighting back. Vignettes describing two events of victimization were administered to 148 ethnic minority adolescents (Latino, African American, and Asian backgrounds; 49% female) attending an urban high school with high rates of conflict. Positive perceptions of teachers' actions during conflicts--assessed via a questionnaire tapping how teachers manage student conflicts both generally and in a specific instance of strife--predicted a greater willingness to seek help from school authority, which in turn negatively predicted self-reported aggressive responses to the victimization scenarios. Path analysis established the viability of this indirect effect model, even when we controlled for sex, beliefs about the acceptability of aggression, and previous levels of reactive aggression. Adolescents' perceptions of teachers' actions during conflicts are discussed in relation to social information processing models, improving student-teacher relations, and decreasing aggression at schools.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. mja@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Mario J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Aceves
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hinshaw
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mendoza-Denton
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Page-Gould
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D019548:Crime Victims; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D011203:Poverty; D013334:Students; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence
references.citation: J Clin Child Psychol. 2001 Dec;30(4):479-91
references.pmid: 11708236
references.citation: Child Dev. 2003 Jul-Aug;74(4):1145-57
references.pmid: 12938710
references.citation: Child Dev. 2008 Mar-Apr;79(2):462-75
references.pmid: 18366434
references.citation: J Consult Clin Psychol. 1994 Jun;62(3):429-40
references.pmid: 8063970
references.citation: Child Dev. 1993 Dec;64(6):1773-85
references.pmid: 8112118
references.citation: Aggress Behav. 2006 Nov 1;32(6):604-624
references.pmid: 20802851
references.citation: Dev Psychopathol. 2002 Winter;14(1):107-22
references.pmid: 11893088
references.citation: Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2008 Jan;78(1):70-84
references.pmid: 18444729
references.citation: J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2007 Oct-Dec;36(4):621-8
references.pmid: 18088219
references.citation: Clin Psychol Rev. 2008 Jan;28(1):17-35
references.pmid: 17916400
references.citation: J Pers Soc Psychol. 1997 Feb;72(2):408-19
references.pmid: 9107008
references.citation: Child Maltreat. 2005 Feb;10(1):5-25
references.pmid: 15611323
references.citation: Psychol Assess. 2002 Mar;14(1):74-96
references.pmid: 11911051
references.citation: Child Dev. 1996 Jun;67(3):993-1002
references.pmid: 8706540
references.citation: J Pers Soc Psychol. 1987 Dec;53(6):1146-58
references.pmid: 3694454
references.citation: Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1996 Jul;66(3):346-53
references.pmid: 8827258
references.citation: J Consult Clin Psychol. 1997 Aug;65(4):599-610
references.pmid: 9256561
references.citation: Psychol Assess. 2002 Mar;14(1):60-73
references.pmid: 11911050
references.citation: Aggress Behav. 2006 Apr 1;32(2):159-171
references.pmid: 20798781