Natalie Vannini

... UK), Sibylle Enz (Otto-Friedrich-Universitaet, Germany), Lynne Hall (University of Sunderland, UK), Mei Yii Lim (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK), Ana Paiva (INESC-ID, Portugal), Wolfgang Schneider (Julius-Maximilians Universität, Germany), Natalie Vannini (Julius ...

There is still relatively little research on the social context within which bullying develops and remains stable. This study examined the short-term stability of bullying victimization among primary school students in the United Kingdom and Germany (mean age, 8.9 years) and the individual and social network factors that contributed to remaining a victim of bullying. The sample consisted of 454 children (247 males and 207 females). Participants completed questionnaires on bullying victimization at three assessment points over a 9-week period. Other measures consisted of self-reported demographic, peer, and family relationship characteristics. Social network indices of density, reciprocity, and hierarchy were constructed using friendship and peer acceptance nominations. Relative risk analyses indicated a six-fold increased risk of remaining a victim at consequent follow-ups, compared to a child not victimized at baseline becoming a victim over the follow-up period. Individual characteristics explained substantially more variance in the stability of bullying victimization than class-level factors. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses revealed that being victimized by siblings and being rejected by peers predicted remaining a victim over a 9-week period. Bullying victimization among primary school students proved moderately stable over a 9-week period. Individual characteristics were more influential in predicting the stable victim role than class-level factors. Our findings have implications for the identification of stable victims in primary school and early preventative bullying programs.

Technology-enhanced role-play for social and emotional learning ... Mei Yii Lim a,* , Karin Leichtenstern b, Michael Kriegel a, Sibylle Enz c, Ruth Aylett a, Natalie Vannini d, Lynne Hall e, Paola Rizzo f ... Article history: Received 7 June 2010 Revised 22 November 2010 Accepted 2 February 2011 Available online 9 March 2011 ... Keywords: Educational role-play game Intercultural empathy Innovative interaction modalities Social and emotional learning ... Role-play can be a powerful educational tool, especially when dealing with social or ethical issues. However, while ...

Abstract: FearNot! is a novel software application aimed at the age-group of 8-12 year old students with the aim to influence their attitude towards and knowledge about bullying. It is a virtual learning environment for social and emotional learning that allows for individual interaction with synthetic autonomous characters that engage in bullying and ask the learner for help and advice in order to escape victimisation. FearNot! uses an emergent narrative approach that generates stories through the interaction of the learner with the autonomous ...

Abstract: Addressing the problems of bullying in schools, this paper presents a novel and highly innovative pedagogical approach building on the immersive power of virtual role-play. Educational role-play is widely accepted as a powerful instrument to change attitudes and behaviour, but faces some difficulties and disadvantages when applied to sensitive social issues in the classroom. This paper shows how the FearNot! software application, developed within the scope of the EU-funded project eCIRCUS (Education through ...

Background and purpose: Many holistic anti-bullying interventions have been attempted, with mixed success, while little work has been done to promote a 'self-help'approach to victimisation. The rise of the ICT curriculum and computer support in schools now allows for approaches that benefit from technology to be implemented. This study evaluates the cross-cultural effects of a computer-based anti-bullying intervention on primary school-aged children's knowledge about bullying and relevant coping strategies. Programme ...