Izabela Zych
Universidy of Cordoba
Prevention of Antisocial Behaviours Inside and Outside of the School Context: Risk and Protective Factors
Participants: Elena Nasaescu1; Inmaculada Marín-López1; Raquel Espejo1 and Joaquín Rodríguez-Ruiz1
1University of Cordoba
Symposium Summary
Introduction: School and youth violence have serious short-, medium- and long-term consequences for both individuals and societies. Although the research focused on these problem behaviours has been very fruitful, there are still many gaps in knowledge related to the risk and protective factors of school and youth violence. Since most of the studies in the field have been carried out through cross-sectional designs, it is still necessary to discover the risk and protective factors from a longitudinal perspective, differentiating them from the correlates. Thus, the aim of this symposium is to present recent findings on the predictive variables of patterns of antisocial behaviours, bullying, cyberbullying and substance use. Methods: Studies presented in this symposium were carried out using a prospective longitudinal methodology, with at least one year of follow-up. A wide variety of possible risk and protective factors are included, especially related to social, emotional and moral competencies. Common aspects and differences between these factors in relation to different types of school and youth violence are highlighted. Results: The results show that some social, emotional and moral competences are related to different types of school and youth violence. These relationships have been found in both cross-sectional, as well as, longitudinal analyses. Discussion: It is still necessary to conduct longitudinal studies that discover various risk and protective factors for violence. Some factors are shared by different antisocial behaviours, while others seem to be more specific. These studies may be useful for the design of custom intervention programs that reduce risks and promote protective factors.
Short CV
PhD is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Cordoba. She is a Visiting Scholar in the Institute of Criminology, at Cambridge University, and a Fellow at the Wolfson College, Cambridge University. She is member of the LAECOVI research team at the University of Cordoba, and an Associate Fellow at the Violence Research Centre, Cambridge University. Her main research interest focuses on bullying and cyberbullying, with particular attention to personal and contextual risk and protective factors. She has led and participated in different research projects. She has been Principal Investigator in two research projects of the National R&D Plan, and a research project funded by Public Safety Canada, all focused on different types of online and offline youth antisocial behaviour. She has been an invited speaker in international conferences worldwide and has published dozens of journal articles focused on bullying, cyberbullying and related topics. Her undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and PhD supervision are mostly related to youth violence. She is a Consultant of Cambridge Assessment.