Being bullied during childhood and the risk of obesity in adulthood: A co-twin control study

Background: The etiology of adult obesity is still poorly understood. It has been shown that over-weight children suffer from adverse psychological events, but less is known about the association of adverse psychological factors among normal weight children and adult obesity. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine if the exposure of perception of being bullied during childhood could be associated with development of adult obesity. Methods: Adult, same-sexed twin pairs discordant for BMI were identified from the Danish Twin Registry. The twins underwent an interview and a physical examination. Data were analyzed by means of a growth-curve model and an intra-pair comparison. This design controls for other influences of early lifestyle and socio economic status and is therefore a powerful tool to study independent effects of specific exposures. Results: In total 236 (81.7%) of the twin individuals identified participated in the study. Participants who reported having been bullied in school, had attained a BMI which was on average 1.4 kg/m2 (95% CI = 0.2;2.5, p = 0.02) higher than those not bullied. Two other questions on specific types of bullying resulted in BMI that were 1.1 kg/m2 (CI = 0.1;2.2, p = 0.03) and 1.9 kg/m2 (CI = 0.7;3.1, p = 0.002) larger than subjects who had not been exposed to bullying. There was a direct association between intra pair differences in BMI and exposure to bullying. Conclusion: The results of the study could indicate that being bullied during childhood seems be associated with adult obesity.

What Should Parents Say to a Child Bullied at School?

The Double Take column looks at a single topic from an African and Chinese perspective. This month we discuss how parents should respond when their child is bullied at school.

The moderating effect of physical activity on the relationship between bullying and mental health among sexual and gender minority youth

Background:Sexual and gender minority youth frequently experience bullying,which often contributes to higher depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem.Given that physical activity(PA)can mitigate depressive symptoms and improve self-esteem,we examined the moderating effect of PA on the relationship between bullying and mental health among sexual and gender minority youth.Methods:Data from the Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual,Transgender,and Queer National Teen Survey(n=9890)were analyzed.Hierarchical regression analyses examined the influence of history and frequency of being bullied,PA,and the interaction of these variables on depressive symptoms and self-esteem.Simple slopes analyses were used to probe significant interactions.Results:Results indicated the importance of accounting for bullying history when examining effects of PA on mental health.PA was negatively related to depression(t=-4.18,p<0.001)and positively related to self-esteem(t=12.11,p<0.001).Bullying frequency was positively related to depression(t=19.35,p<0.001)and negatively related to self-esteem(t=-12.46,p<0.001).There was a significant interaction between bullying frequency and PA for depression(t=4.45,p<0.001)and self-esteem(t=-4.69,p<0.001).Post hoc analyses suggested that the positive effects of PA on mental health may be limited to those not bullied because it had a negligible effect on those who were bullied.Conclusion:Results suggest that sexual and gender minority youth exercise interventions aiming to improve mental health should first address bullying history;otherwise,their effectiveness may be limited to those who have been bullied.

Methods Used to Reduce Bullying in Kindergarten from Teachers’ Perspectives

This study identified the methods used by kindergarten teachers to reduce bullying among their students in and out of the classroom and examined differences based on the teachers’years of experience and the number of courses on bullying they had taken.A descriptive survey using a questionnaire tool collected responses from 208 public kindergarten teachers in Riyadh,Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The participants agreed with using such methods to reduce bullying among children as responding to parents’reports and following up on the reasons for a child’s absence.They also agreed that bullying in the classroom could be reduced by methods such as avoiding comparisons between children and helping to build friendships among them.Moreover,the teachers agreed to use some methods in which the teacher relies on her authority,such as depriving the bully of play time and transfer-ring him/her to another class.These methods were endorsed more strongly by teachers with at least 10 years of experience than by those with less experience,but no significant difference was observed according to the number of bullying courses taken.In addition,there is a lack of courses that focus on dealing with and confronting bully-ing in educational environments.The study highlights the need to provide teachers with training on how to deal with bullying and to set specific and clear policies on addressing bullying in kindergarten.

Consequences of bullying victimization in childhood and adolescence:A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM To identify health and psychosocial problems associated with bullying victimization and conduct a meta-analysis summarizing the causal evidence.METHODS A systematic review was conducted using Pub Med, EMBASE, ERIC and Psyc INFO electronic databases up to 28 February 2015. The study included published longitudinal and cross-sectional articles that examined health and psychosocial consequences of bullying victimization. All meta-analyses were based on qualityeffects models. Evidence for causality was assessed using Bradford Hill criteria and the grading system developed by the World Cancer Research Fund.RESULTS Out of 317 articles assessed for eligibility, 165 satisfied the predetermined inclusion criteria for meta-analysis.Statistically significant associations were observed between bullying victimization and a wide range of adverse health and psychosocial problems. The evidence was strongest for causal associations between bullying victimization and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, poor general health and suicidal ideation and behaviours. Probable causal associations existed between bullying victimization and tobacco and illicit drug use. CONCLUSION Strong evidence exists for a causal relationship between bullying victimization, mental health problems and substance use. Evidence also exists for associations between bullying victimization and other adverse health and psychosocial problems, however, there is insufficient evidence to conclude causality. The strong evidence that bullying victimization is causative of mental illness highlights the need for schools to implement effective interventions to address bullying behaviours.

Bullying among people with visual impairment: Prevalence, associated factors and relationship to self-efficacy and life satisfaction

AIM To examine associated factors of bullying and to determine associations between bullying and psychosocial outcomes among individuals with visual impairments(Ⅵ). METHODS We conducted an age-stratified cross-sectional survey of adults with Ⅵ who were recruited from the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted. Data were collected through structural telephone interviews in the period between February and May, 2017. Linear regression models were used to examine factors related to bullying and associations of bullying with self-efficacy and life satisfaction.RESULTS A total of 736 individuals were interviewed. The lifetime and 6-mo prevalence of bullying was 41.7% and8.2%, respectively. The majority of bullied participants reported Ⅵ-specific bullying(65.1%). Victimization of bullying was associated with young age, early onsetage of Ⅵ, and having other impairments. Participants who reported bullying had lower levels of self-efficacy[Adjusted relative risk(ARR): 0.40, 95% confidence interval(CI): 0.19-0.85] and life satisfaction(ARR: 0.68,95%CI: 0.51-0.91).CONCLUSION Bullying is highly prevalent among individuals withⅥ. Our findings suggest that interventions to reduce bullying may be beneficial for improving the well-being and life quality of people with Ⅵ.

Management of work place bullying in hospital:A review of the use of cognitive rehearsal as an alternative management strategy

Lateral violence is not uncommon in workplaces.Unfortunately,nursing,a profession that builds its practice on compassion and code of ethics while caring for their patients is not spared from this phenomenon of lateral violence.Studies have reported cases of lateral violence among nurses to occur frequently worldwide.The impact of lateral violence has serious repercussions not only on the health of bullied victims but also on the structure and financial spending of the organisation.More importantly,the potential latent impacts on the patients'safety and health is of great concern.This literature review suggests that the contributing factors towards lateral violence are mainly due to characteristics of perpetrators,victims'reaction to bullying and organisation's characteristic.To mitigate the impact of lateral violence among young and inexperienced nurses,a cognitive rehearsal scripted response is proposed to prevent harassment and bullying incidents from becoming a feature at the workplace for nurses.

A Skeleton-based Approach for Campus Violence Detection

In this paper,we propose a skeleton-based method to identify violence and aggressive behavior.The approach does not necessitate highprocessing equipment and it can be quickly implemented.Our approach consists of two phases:feature extraction from image sequences to assess a human posture,followed by activity classification applying a neural network to identify whether the frames include aggressive situations and violence.A video violence dataset of 400 min comprising a single person’s activities and 20 h of video data including physical violence and aggressive acts,and 13 classifications for distinguishing aggressor and victim behavior were generated.Finally,the proposed method was trained and tested using the collected dataset.The results indicate the accuracy of 97%was achieved in identifying aggressive conduct in video sequences.Furthermore,the obtained results show that the proposed method can detect aggressive behavior and violence in a short period of time and is accessible for real-world applications.

国外对校园霸凌行为现象的研究综述

通过对国外"bullying"现象的研究,从"校园霸凌行为"这一新定义出发,对传统校园欺凌现象与校园霸凌行为现象进行了对比分析,并概述国外针对校园霸凌行为采取的干预措施,以期为国内进一步研究和预防校园霸凌行为提供参考。

A Dynamic Leader Election Algorithm for Decentralized Networks

Leader election algorithms play an important role in orchestrating different processes on distributed systems, including next-generation transportation systems. This leader election phase is usually triggered after the leader has failed and has a high overhead in performance and state recovery. Further, these algorithms are not generally applicable to cloud-based native microservices-based applications where the resources available to the group and resources participating in a group continuously change and the current leader may exit the system with prior knowledge of the exit. Our proposed algorithm, the dynamic leader selection algorithm, provides several benefits through selection (not, election) of a set of future leaders which are then alerted prior to the failure of the current leadership and handed over the leadership. A specific illustration of this algorithm is provided with reference to a peer-to-peer distribution of autonomous cars in a 5G architecture for transportation networks. The proposed algorithm increases the efficiencies of applications that use the leader election algorithm and finds broad applicability in microservices-based applications.

Influence of Parental Rearing Patterns on School Bullying Behavior of Junior High School Students

Bullying,as an aggressive behavior,has become a common phenomenon among junior high school students.The occurrence of bullying behavior can have a serious negative impact on the mental health of junior high school students.Some students even suffer from psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.Many research results at home and abroad show that personality is an important factor affecting bullying behavior.In this case,this study explores the impact of parental rearing patterns on school bullying behavior.Improving the parenting styles of junior high school students and their parenting level has become an practicable practical approach to prevent the problem of school bullying.

The impacts of organizational culture and neoliberal ideology on the continued existence of incivility and bullying in healthcare institutions:A discussion paper

Countless research studies have demonstrated the detrimental effects of incivility and bullying in healthcare.Despite the abundance of proposed solutions to this issue,many healthcare leaders continue to fail in mitigating the existence of such negative behaviors in the workplace.Personality attributes of perpetrators and victims have received attention,but much less research has examined the organizational and neoliberal causations of incivility and bullying in healthcare.Being the largest occupational group in the health sector,nursing professionals have the greatest influence and are crucial in ending these behaviors.This discussion paper outlines the effects of incivility and bullying in healthcare and provides a critical analysis on how organizational culture and neoliberal ideology influence the pervasiveness and persistence of these negative behaviors.The analysis reveals that organizational cultures that misuse power,disregard equality,and facilitate oppression,foster the existence of incivility and bullying in the workplace.Such cultures permit perpetrators to misuse their authority to control resource allocation,ignorance to social inequalities,and the silence of victims.Furthermore,the neoliberal concept of deregulation,austerity,and individualism further these behaviors.The neoliberal reforms have led to underfunding of anti-bullying programs and policies,use of bullying behaviours as management strategies,and victim-blaming for profit maximization.Financial cutbacks have resulted in denial and acceptance of uncivil and bullying behaviours in healthcare institutions,which endangers the rights of healthcare providers to a safe workplace environment.To curtail these negative behaviors,robust anti-bullying policies and programs must be strictly enforced and sustained in practice.Further exploration on the association of organizational culture and neoliberal principles to incivility and bullying in healthcare is greatly warranted.

Bullying Among School Students in the UAE Society

The purpose of this study is to research the bullying phenomenon among school students in the UAE society. This is done through showing the extent of prevalence of bullying, the rate of recurrence of bullying incidences, the most widespread forms of bullying among school children in the Emirati society, and finally, the variation with regards to the prevalence and forms of bullying as related to the student’s gender. Therefore, this study aims to probe the prevalence of this phenomenon in schools, and the frequency of bullying cases as well as its forms. For this purpose, a questionnaire was designed and conducted on a sample size of 1,309 students of both genders. The data were later analyzed using descriptive statistical and analytical metrics that are appropriate for the variables’ measurement level, and which achieve the objectives of the study. The study found that a third of the students (33.3%) were involved in bullying incidents. Furthermore, it was found that 14.2% were the party causing the bullying incident, while 19.1% were the party upon which bullying was inflicted. The study also revealed that within school premises the places where bullying was most likely to occur are corridors, and the places which students felt were the least safe are the closed spaces. As for the forms of bullying students are subjected to, offensive name calling or insults came in first place, followed by cyber/online bullying. The young age and smaller size of a student were among the most important motivators for students to bully him/her. It was also found that 32.8% of students who are exposed to bullying respond in a similar manner. The study showed that most of the bullied students (78.4%) know the person doing the bullying, the females being more cognizant of the perpetrator bullying them. Moreover, 40.7% of the students believe that the teachers and other employees are aware of the bullying taking place, female students to a greater extent than males in this regard. In the study sample, the students believe that strong and strict school administration would contribute to stopping the bullying phenomenon. The study additionally concluded a number of recommendations to reduce this phenomenon.

Using Yoga to Reduce Stress and Bullying Behaviors among Urban Youth

Background/Purpose: Obesity and secondary conditions continue to disproportionally affect the health of children living in urban areas. Studies show that a lack of resources and physical activity-unfriendly communities discourage 60 minutes of daily activity, including strengthening exercises, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using Social Ecological theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the multi-level influences of a yoga-based intervention on urban, inner city youth. Method: Using a mixed-methods design, ninety-three 3 - 5th grade students at five urban elementary schools participated in a ten-week yoga intervention. Analysis/Results: RM-ANOVA results revealed a significant reduction in stress and bullying behaviors among participants, and multiple regression analyses revealed that program attendance, change in stress, and change in yoga enjoyment significantly predicted change in yoga participation outside PE, when controlling for gender and age F(5, 87) = 5.36, p R2 = 0.19, but did not have a significant impact on physical activity participation outside of school. Student interviews and non-participant observations revealed strong enjoyment of yoga which led students to report substantial increases in yoga-related activities outside of school. Students also revealed that experience in yoga improved focus, attention, and reduced stress. Conclusions: Through convergence of qualitative and quantitative methods, this study showed a positive relationship between the number of yoga sessions attended (dose), enjoyment of yoga, and participation in yoga outside PE with friends and family. Findings suggest that urban PE should include more individual, non-competitive activities such as yoga, which students find to be stress-relieving, fun, inexpensive and easy to perform at home.

The Association between Physical Education and Mental Health Indicators in Adolescents:A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective:To explore the associations between physical education attendance and mental health indicators.Methods:Using data from the Global Student Health Survey,the frequency of physical education attendance,suicidality-related indicators,loneliness,bullying,and anxiety were all assessed using a standardized self-reported questionnaire.Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the association between physical education attendance and mental health-related indicators.Results:The study included 276,169 participants from 71 coun-tries(47.3%males,aged 11–18 years old).After controlling for sex,age,food insecurity,close friends,physical activity,sedentary time,others’help,and parents’understanding,physical education attendance was not signifi-cantly associated with suicidal attempts,suicidal ideation,and anxiety.However,compared with no physical edu-cation attendance,individuals attending physical education for 1,2,as well as 5 or more days had significantly reduced odds/ratios of suicide;only 2 days of physical education attendance was associated with a lower odds ratio for suffering from loneliness.Even 1 day of physical education was associated with not being bullied by others.Conclusion:This study suggests that physical education attendance may not have an effective role in reducing mental health illnesses in children and adolescents.Future studies are encouraged to corroborate or negate our research discoveries by using better and further improved study designs.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Symptoms, Anger Control and Emotional Regulation of Bully Children

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy in clinical symptoms, anger control and emotional regulation of bully children. This research is a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study design with a nonequivalent control group. The research sample comprises 24 bully children who were purposefully selected from among the students who had responded positively to the researcher’s call. The participants were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. Group therapy intervention was conducted on the experimental group during ten sessions. The tools applied in this study consisted of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Garnefski et al., State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory by Spielberger and Bullying Scale by Illinois, Espelage and Holt and the subjects answered to their questions in the stage of pretest and posttest. In this research, the data was analyzed based on the analysis of covariance test and with the aid of SPSS software. The findings demonstrated that dialectical behavior therapy has a significant impact on clinical symptoms, anger control and its components and emotional regulation and its components (P < 0.01).

Different typologies of workplace conflict and their connections with post traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED)

Reported is an empirical study which shows that Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED) is the most appropriate psychological diagnosis for victims of workplace conflicts, particularly bullying. A group of 118 people all reporting conflict at work were evaluated with the LIPT questionnaire, the PTED self-rating scale and a guided psychological interview. 91.5% proved to be affected by a PTED, the slight majority males, aged between 31 and 40 years and subjected to bullying. The evidence suggests that some workplace conflict victims who are presently diagnosed and treated as depression or phobia can be in fact cases of PTED. The treatment may be adjusted and the PTED scale may be used as a screening in-strument similar to scales for anxiety and depressive disorders.

Workplace mistreatment: Health, working environment and social and economic factors

Objective: To explore patterns of workplace mistreatment, relationships with health and with selected workplace, economic and social factors in 34 countries. Methods: Secondary data analysis of the European Working Conditions Survey. Results: Patterns of ill treatment (across occupational groups, and sectors) were broadly consistent with smaller, less representative studies. Prevalence was lower than many studies but corresponds with estimates of serious mistreatment. Mistreatment increases the risk of both physical and mental ill health and is associated with a range of work environment factors. Mistreatment is more prevalent in countries with smaller gender gaps, better performance on the GINI index for income inequality and for countries with specific anti-bullying legislation. Conclusions: Mistreatment in work is complex, and interventions are required at the level of the organization. Implementation issues need to be addressed, as specific anti-bullying legislation does not appear to provide sufficient protection.

Insights into Bullying and Verbal Aggressiveness through Social Network Analysis

Aim of this research is to reveal social structures, typologies and determinants of verbal aggressiveness and bullying. Five students’ networks from various Higher Education departments in Thessaly, Greece (Physical Education, Veterinary, Business Administration) (total nodes N = 245) have been examined by Social Network Analysis and conventional statistics in 2017. Main results: Rudeness relations are denser at the Physical Education department due to the intensity and pressure of corporal exercise. Social exclusion seems to be much more common practice. Hurting necessitates particularly intensive conditions while deriding, rudeness and threatening are compatible with any action of bullying. The offenders tend to practice simultaneously bullying and verbal aggressiveness but often against different targets. Various levels of victimization are diagnosed through selectiveness in strategies of offense. Obesity often constitutes a reason of depreciation. Education values stimulate respectfulness rather than aggressive jealousness. Ambitiousness, travelling experience, social selectiveness based on criteria of intellectual, encyclopedic qualifications or politeness also prevent verbal aggressiveness. Female students seem to be more invulnerable. Bullying seems to be reciprocal and diachronic. Verbal aggressiveness seems to conceal a presumption of corporal aggressiveness. Especially, ambitiousness in the scientific arena or the high education level of father seems to encourage practicing verbal aggressiveness.

The Naples-Questionnaire of Work Distress (nQ-WD): Bullying at workplace, organizational dysfunctions and bio-psycho-social effects

The aim of this study is to elaborate a tool, the “Naples-Questionnaire of Work Distress” (nQ-WD), in order to evaluate the conditions of discomfort perceived in the working field. It tries to differentiate the dysfunctional phenomena more tied to the anomalies of the interpersonal relationships (bullying at work-place) from the phenomena more clearly related to organizational dysfunctions. The inventory measures the overall effects of these two areas on the subject and the spin-off in term of bio-psycho-social functioning. The questionnaire has been administered to a group of 178 workers who showed a work-related psychopathological disturbance and to a control group of 178 subjects without exposure to bullying at workplace or to organizational distress. The statistical analysis demonstrated degree of significant validity and reliability. The degree of internal coherence of the answers proposed is satisfactory. The ROC curves allow the determination of a threshold value which allows separating the workers subjected to mobbing and/or organizational stress from control-workers with an optimal reliability degree. The values of the area under the ROC curves show that the inventory has a high discriminating capacity.