Previous research comparing different large-scale cross-national surveys has shown substantial discrepancies in (cyber)bullying and (cyber)victimization rates within countries. This study hypothesized that systematic differences in bullying definitions might explain these discrepancies. Prevalence rates of bullying, victimization, cyberbullying and cybervictimization of two large-scale surveys, EU Kids Online (EUKO) and Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) that used two types of bullying definitions were compared using data from 123,206 students (aged 10–16 years) in 19 overlapping countries. Contrary to our hypotheses, multilevel Bayesian logistic regression analyses in Mplus and Bayes factor calculations in R showed no evidence of systematic differences in prevalence rates between EUKO and HBSC within countries, either before or after statistically controlling for sample characteristics and study features. Instead, prevalence rates generated by EUKO and HBSC varied unsystematically within countries, highlighting that within country differences produced by EUKO and HBSC should be interpreted with great caution.

This study investigated whether immigrant and non-immigrant parents differ regarding their perceptions of the levels of their child's school engagement, parental academic involvement and school performance expectations and whether these resources are associated with their child's academic success and help to explain the immigrant achievement gap. In total, 798 parents (75% mothers, 18% immigrants) of adolescents attending grades 5 to 8 Austrian secondary schools (50% girls, Mage = 12.49) participated. Immigrant adolescents had lower levels of academic achievement compared to non-immigrants (d = 0.53). Immigrant parents reported higher performance expectations compared to non-immigrants (d = -1.48). The immigrant achievement gap disappeared when taking father's education into account. When adolescents were younger, when fathers attained higher levels of education, when parents perceived more time investment for school and school liking but reported less parental academic involvement and performance pressure in school, adolescents had higher academic achievement. None of these resources were mediators for the immigrant achievement gap.

Research shows victims have lower peer status, but whether bullying participants differ in (dis)liking them and if classroom context matters remains unclear. Early adolescents (N = 751) were assessed twice over six months for (dis)liking and reputational nominations on physical bullying, defending, and victimization. SAOMs showed that victims did not experience a decline in being liked or an increase in being disliked over six months and almost no differences in how bullies, victims, and defenders (dis)liked (other) victims were found, except that victims developed disliking toward other victims over time. Despite assumptions of the healthy context paradox, classroom victimization did not moderate (dis)liking toward victims. Overall, the (dis)liking was stable and largely consistent across bullying participants and classroom contexts, though concerning dislike emerged among victims.

Guided by a strength-based developmental perspective and capturing multi-system complexities, the present study examines the role of scholastic resources, scholastic challenges, and contextual challenges as predictors of happiness and as mediators of the immigrant adolescent's happiness gap. In total, 544 adolescents (47% girls; 38% immigrants, 13-15 years) attending grade 7, 8, and 9 classes in three Cypriote gymnasiums completed self-report questionnaires. Controlling for gender and age, immigrant adolescents had lower levels of happiness compared to non-immigrant adolescents indicating the presence of an immigrant happiness gap. Scholastic resources, scholastic challenges, and contextual challenges were significant predictors of happiness. Higher levels of scholastic anxiety and more stressful life events mediated the negative association between immigrant status and happiness. To promote high levels of happiness among all students, schools should establish a positive class climate that fosters high levels of learning interest and scholastic self-efficacy. For immigrant adolescents, teaching methods that reduce scholastic anxiety would be most beneficial. In addition, a stress-sensitive pedagogy could help immigrant adolescents to better cope with their stressful live events and to promote their positive development.

IntroductionEmpathic concern is acknowledged as a protective factor against bullying and ethnic bullying. However, longitudinal research on these associations is scarce for bullying and absent for ethnic bullying.ObjectiveThis study examines concurrent and longitudinal association between bullying, ethnic bullying, and empathic concern, taking into account victimization and ethnic victimization.ProcedureA three-wave longitudinal study was conducted over two years with 495 adolescents attending grade 7 and 8 (52% boys; 12.41 years old at wave 1).ResultsCross-lagged panel models showed that lower levels of empathic concern at the beginning of grade 7 were a risk factor for increased bullying, ethnic bullying, and ethnic victimization at the end of grade 7, while no longitudinal associations were found between the end of grades 7 and 8. Concurrently, empathic concern was consistently negatively associated with bullying across three waves, and with ethnic bullying only at the end of grade 7.ConclusionsThis study provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between bullying, ethnic bullying, and empathic concern, offering directions for future research and practical implications.

This study tested the motivational and achievement-related factors associated with immigrant adolescents’ high educational and occupational aspirations. Adolescents residing in Austria (457 girls; 235 first-generation, 418 second-generation and 238 2.5-generation immigrants) aged 11 to 15 years (Mage = 12.50, SDage = 1.08) participated. For all three immigrant groups, high levels of social relatedness–supportive teaching styles in German language predicted high levels of scholastic self-concept, high levels of scholastic self-concept in German language predicted high levels of achievement, and high levels of academic achievement predicted high levels of aspirations. High levels of competence supportive teaching styles predicted high levels of scholastic self-concept only among first-generation immigrants. The implications for host country language instruction of immigrant adolescents are discussed.

Interethnic bullying that targets ethnic minority students has serious consequences for the lives of victimized students. Teachers’ evaluations of the bullying are critical because teacher intervention can stop bullying and improve the adjustment of victimized students. Because the literature has documented partially overlapping biases against people of Arab ethnicity and people with refugee backgrounds, this study investigated whether teachers’ attitudes toward refugees play a role in their evaluations of the interethnic bullying of an Arab student. Teachers (n = 373; 77

To tackle school bullying, teachers can implement school, class, parent, or individual level activities. Applying a socio-ecological model of development, the present study (1) investigates which prevention and intervention activities are implemented in Albanian schools according to teacher perspectives, and (2) examines how these teacher-reported activities are associated with bullying and cyberbullying rates reported both by teachers and students. Representative data in schools all over Albania were collected via a stratified sampling procedure to select schools and a random sample method to select teachers and students. In total, 144 schools serving grades 4 to 12 and 3560 teachers (81

The longitudinal associations of bullying by teachers with (a) social and academic student characteristics, (b) supportive relationships with peers and adults, and (c) the school context were investigated. Three waves of data were collected over two years among 630 adolescents in Austria (50% girls; 78.8% non-immigrants; mean age = 12.52 years, SD = 0.67). Controlling for the nested data structure at class level, a series of cross lagged panel models controlling for gender, immigrant status, and age were conducted. Social student characteristics (e.g., high levels of peer victimization and high levels of peer bullying) were concurrent, but not longitudinal risk factors for being bullied by teachers. Academic student characteristics (e.g., low levels of school motivation and low levels of learning interest) were longitudinal risk factors for being bullied by teachers, but high levels of supportive peer relationships and high levels of school bonding were longitudinal protective factors. Low levels of perceived support from adults were both an antecedent and a consequence of teacher bullying. Bullying by teachers should be integrated into bullying prevention programs.

Developing a comprehensive understanding of adolescents’ defending behaviors in peer victimization incidents is crucial, as these behaviors are instrumental in preventing victimization in schools. Despite recent efforts to examine various defender subgroups and their characteristics, the heterogeneity in defending behaviors within the context of ethnic victimization remains unclear. To address this gap in knowledge, the current study examined naturally occurring subgroups of defenders in ethnic victimization incidents and investigated whether these subgroups differ in their socio-cognitive skills, class norms, and social status within peer relationships. The sample included adolescents in Sweden (N = 1065; Mage = 13.12, SD = 0.41; 44.5% females). Cluster analysis yielded four distinct subgroups: victim-oriented defenders (41.3%), hybrid defenders (23.5%), bully-oriented defenders (9.8%), and non-defenders (25.4%). Hybrid and victim-oriented defenders had higher levels of perspective taking skills and positive attitudes toward immigrants than non-defenders. All three defender subgroups perceived their classroom climate as more socially cohesive than non-defenders. All four subgroups did not significantly differ in their peer status. These findings emphasize the importance of fostering inclusive class norms and implementing classroom practices that facilitate the development of perspective taking skills among students. Such effort can enhance adolescents’ active defending behaviors in instances of ethnic victimization.

The majority of asylum seekers experience some kind of traumatic events before or during their flight and their challenging experiences do not end after resettlement. Still, they need to envision and build their future life in the host country. Moreover, asylum seekers’ future aspirations need to be differentiated from the satisfaction of essential needs. We (1) measured future aspirations (FA); (2) explored whether FA and post-migration life difficulties (PMLD) differ between asylum seekers with high and low levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS); and (3) examined whether PTSS, PMLD, gender, age, and length of stay are associated with different types of FA. In total, 139 Iraqi and Syrian asylum seekers (55 female, 83 male) aged 18 to 67 years ( M = 34.03, SD = 10.35) participated. A four-factor structure of FA was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Participants with high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms reported higher levels of PMLD and lower levels of FA related to their home country. FA related to the host country and FA related to occupation were predicted by lower levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms, while future aspirations related to the home country were predicted by higher levels of PMLD. Results indicate that asylum seekers who experienced more traumatic events before they migrated are more reluctant to return to these places in the future. Treating the psychological impairments of this highly vulnerable group and relaxing the manifold structural barriers are crucial to foster their construction of a future life.

Taking a socio-ecological theoretical perspective, the present study (1) examined the concurrent and longitudinal associations between offline, cyber, and ethnic victimization, and (2) investigated whether the same or different intra- and interpersonal variables are longitudinal risk or protective factors. A three-wave longitudinal study including 630 adolescents (50% boys, 12.52 years at wave 1, 7% first and 14% second generation immigrant) was utilized. Cross lagged panel models showed that neither offline victimization nor cyber victimization predicted ethnic victimization longitudinally. Positive peer relations, good class climate, high levels of school bonding, high levels of school motivation and high levels of self-efficacy at the beginning of grade 7 were protective factors for low levels of ethnic, cyber, and offline victimization at the end of grade 7. However, only high levels of ethnic victimization at the beginning of grade 7 were also risk factors for low levels of positive peer relations, school bonding and school motivation at the end of grade 7. Ethnic victimization at the end of grade 8 could not be predicted prospectively. Considering its unique negative consequences within grade 7, it is important to give ethnic victimization a special attention in anti-bullying programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a highly dynamic cause of multisystem disturbances that evoked complex and largely differing responses of countries, communities, neighbourhoods, families, schools, and individuals. With these multisystem complexities in mind, it is nearly impossible to fully understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human development. Nevertheless, when applying appropriate research designs, it is possible to gain some major insights on how human development unfolded during this global crisis. The main goal of this special section was to collect some of the strongest studies that have been conducted to better understand various aspects of human functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on youth and their caregivers. The studies that were chosen for this special section comprise children, adolescents, emerging adults, and mothers, and they aimed to better understand changes in life satisfaction, mental health, academic motivation, food intake, and parenting. Taken together, these studies provide highly informative spotlights on human development in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they call for future analyses to further elucidate unexpected findings that might have occurred more often than we have initially thought.

The present study investigates whether empathy shapes the criminogenic effect of low self-control in late adulthood. Based on the assumption that the capacity to understand and share the thoughts and emotions of other people moderates the significance of the capability to consider the distant consequences of behaviour on oneself, we posit that poor self-control is less consequential among senior citizens of high empathy. The results of a postal survey of 3,000 randomly selected older adults from Germany indicate that both low trait self-control and weak trait empathy increase offending in advanced age. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence of an interaction according to which the relationship between the risk-taking component of the self-control trait and criminal activity is stronger for older adults characterised by low empathy. Impulsivity, on the other hand, seems to mediate the association of empathy and offending in late life.

The world is facing complex global societal challenges including accelerating climate change, a pandemic, rising social inequalities also in well-functioning welfare states, cultural and linguistic diversity, and a renewed call for racial justice. Developmental psychology can make strong contributions to address these and other global challenges because developmental psychologists have the necessary theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge. This paper discusses (1) the usefulness of a relational developmental theoretical perspective, (2) implications for study designs and methodologies, (3) which competences should ideally be fostered early on to prepare adults to cope with global societal challenges that need high levels of future-oriented, cooperative, and collective efforts, and (4) the implementation gap between what is known in developmental psychology and what is done in educational settings. Overall, this paper is a plea for strong voices from developmental psychology to help solve current and future global societal challenges.

INTRODUCTION Computers and technology are still perceived as a male domain. As a result of this "digital gender gap" boys aspire careers in the information and communication technology (ICT) branches much more than girls. Guided by the situated expectancy-value theory of motivated behavioral choices, the present study aims to shed light on the predictors of digital career aspirations. METHODS Self-report questionnaires were completed by 1018 Austrian adolescents (52.3% girls; 72% non-immigrants; Mage  = 13.55, SDage  = 0.88) attending 61 Grade 7 and 8 classes located in 17 vocational secondary schools between April and June 2019. Individual and class-level predictors of digital career aspirations were investigated with multilevel modeling. RESULTS Hierarchical linear models revealed that boys, younger adolescents, and second-generation immigrant adolescents had higher levels of digital career aspirations compared to girls, older adolescents, and non-immigrants. Hours spend with the laptop per day, digital self-efficacy and media appraisal positively predicted digital career aspirations on the individual level, while a higher number of immigrants in the classes and higher levels of teacher discussions about media were significant positive predictors on the class level. The model explained 17% of the individual level and 52% of the class level variance. Cross-level interactions were nonsignificant. CONCLUSIONS These results have major implications for educational practice. Most importantly, educational interventions should enhance girls' digital self-efficacy believes and media appraisal. Furthermore, teachers should increase their discussion about digital media as they foster adolescents' digital career aspirations and might prevent future gender segregation in the ICT sector.