This study addressed a need for research on the association between adopting or denying the label of bully victim and students' psychosocial functioning. Participants were 1,063 students in Grades 5, 7, and 9 in a school district in the northeastern United States. Students were grouped based on their pattern of responses to (a) the California Bully Victimization Scale , which does not use the term "bully," but includes behavioral items assessing frequency of peer victimization and whether or not that victimization involved any perceived power disadvantage, and (b) the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire (Solberg & Olweus, 2003;Solberg, Olweus, & Endresen, 2007), which queries self-identification as a bully victim. We compared groups using a series of planned comparisons with ANOVA on self-reported emotional distress and withdrawal, behavioral reactivity and conduct problems, and prosocial behavior and peer competence, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). Results revealed complexities regarding the experience of bullying. The perception of a power difference and having been bullied both related to psychosocial functioning in an interactive way, suggesting that both are important to query. Moreover, students who labeled themselves as victims of bullying reported poorer psychosocial functioning than those who had the experience of being bullied but did not adopt that label.
The emergence of COVID-19 forced significant adaptations for families worldwide. Children and youth in foster care and their caregivers or resource parents experience unique stressors. The current study aimed to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and “Safer-at-Home” orders on resource parents in Los Angeles County. Resource parents (n = 648) were surveyed about COVID-19 concerns, positive impact and strengths, access to and helpfulness of provided resources, visits with birth parents, children joining their families during the pandemic, and transition to telehealth. Between one-third and half of resource parents with foster or foster-adoptive children in their home reported significant anxiety about issues such as getting infected, uncertainty about the future, and financial hardship. In contrast, most resource parents reported some perceived benefits, such as increased family closeness. The most helpful resource reported was video visitation by social workers. A quarter of resource parents experienced in-person birth parent visits. Developmentally, parents with a foster or fosteradoptive child 0–5 years old reported significantly more worries related to COVID-19, while those with children of multiple ages reported feeling less valued as a resource parent and expressed more concerns about children falling behind with school, mental health and developmental services, birth parent visits, and delayed reunification. Lastly, younger parental age, fewer foster children in the home, and the less negative impact from COVID-19 a resource parent reported having were associated with an increased likelihood of resource parents welcoming a child into their home. Implications for policy and recommendations for practice are discussed.
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