Although peers are a major influence during adolescence, the relative importance of specific mechanisms of peer influence on the development of problem behavior is not well understood. This study investigated five domains of peer influence and their relationships to adolescents' problem and prosocial behaviors. Self-report and teacher ratings were obtained for 1787 (53 % female) urban middle school students. Peer pressure for fighting and friends' delinquent behavior were uniquely associated with aggression, drug use and delinquent behavior. Friends' prosocial behavior was uniquely associated with prosocial behavior. Friends' support for fighting and friends' support for nonviolence were not as clearly related to behavior. Findings were generally consistent across gender. This study highlights the importance of studying multiple aspects of peer influences on adolescents' behavior.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify patterns of dating aggression and victimization in urban early adolescents and their relations to mental health symptoms. Method: Participants were students in 3 urban public middle schools who reported having a boyfriend or girlfriend in the past 3 months (n = 938). The sample (M = 13.3 years old) was 52% female, 73% African American, 15% multiracial, 4% White, and 8% other races; 13% were also Hispanic or Latino. Participants reported their frequency of experiencing and perpetrating 10 dating aggression behaviors. Results: Latent class analysis identified typologies of dating aggression and victimization. The best fitting model was a 5-class model that classified youth as uninvolved (54.6%), victims (8.3%), aggressors (9.7%), psychologically aggressive victims (22.0%), and aggressive victims (5.4%). Groups also differed on measures of trauma-related distress and problem behaviors, specifically physical aggression, even after consideration of exposure to community violence. Conclusions: These findings suggest that subtypes of dating aggression exist in middle school that are characterized by differing levels and types of involvement and relations to mental health symptoms. These results support the need for prevention and intervention programs focusing on early adolescent dating aggression, particularly to also prevent trauma-related distress and problem behaviors.

Objective: This review focuses on the literature on cyberbullying among adolescents. Currently, there is no unified theoretical framework to move the field of cyberbullying forward. Due to some unique features of cyberbullying, researchers have generally assumed that it is distinct from aggression perpetrated in person. Many measures of cyberbullying have been developed based on this assumption rather than to test competing models and inform a theoretical framework for cyberbullying. Approach: We review current theory and research on cyberbullying within the context of the broader literature on aggression to explore the usefulness of the assumption that cyberbullying represents a distinct form of aggression. Associations between cyberbullying and general forms of aggression and psychosocial predictors of cyberbullying are discussed. Conclusions: Based on the empirical research, we suggest that the media through which aggression is perpetrated may be best conceptualized as a new dimension on which aggression can be classified, rather than cyberbullying as a distinct counterpart to existing forms of aggression. Research on cyberbullying should be considered within the context of theoretical and empirical knowledge of aggression in adolescence. Using this approach will create a theoretical framework for understanding cyberbullying, focus future research, and guide prevention efforts.

The purposes of the present study were to (1) describe rates of peer victimization in young adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), (2) evaluate the association between types of peer victimization (i.e., physical, relational, reputational) and internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, self-esteem), and (3) examine whether associations between victimization and internalizing problems differ for males or females. Participants were 131 middle school students (ages 11–15 years, 73% male, 76% White) diagnosed with ADHD who completed ratings of victimization, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Over half of participants (57%) reported experiencing at least one victimization behavior at a rate of once per week or more, with higher rates of relational victimization (51%) than reputational victimization (17%) or physical victimization (14%). Males reported experiencing more physical victimization than females but males and females did not differ in rates of relational or reputational victimization. Whereas relational and physical victimization were both uniquely associated with greater anxiety for both males and females, relational victimization was associated with greater depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem for males but not females. These findings indicate that young adolescents with ADHD frequently experience peer victimization, and that the association between victimization and internalizing problems among young adolescents with ADHD differs as a result of victimization type, internalizing domain, and sex.

This study evaluated the Problem Behavior Frequency Scale-Adolescent Report (PBFS-AR), a measure designed to assess adolescents' frequency of victimization, aggression, substance use, and delinquent behavior. Participants were 1,263 students (50% female; 78% African American, 18% Latino) from three urban middle schools in the United States. Confirmatory factor analyses of competing models of the structure of the PBFS-AR supported a model that differentiated among three forms of aggression (in-person physical, in-person relational, and cyber), two forms of victimization (in-person and cyber), substance use, and delinquent behavior. This seven-factor model fit the data well and demonstrated strong measurement invariance across groups that differed on sex and grade. Support was found for concurrent validity of the PBFS-AR based on its pattern of relations with school office discipline referrals.