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III. TEASING, BULLYING, AND EMOTION REGULATION IN CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED MOTHERS
Author(s) -
Myers Barbara J.,
Mackintosh Virginia H.,
Kuznetsova Maria I.,
Lotze Geri M.,
Best Al M.,
Ravindran Neeraja
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
monographs of the society for research in child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.618
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1540-5834
pISSN - 0037-976X
DOI - 10.1111/mono.12019
Subject(s) - citation , commonwealth , psychology , library science , political science , law , computer science
Jason teases his fellow camper, Dwayne, daring him into the deep end of the pool, knowing that Dwayne cannot swim. What was Jason’s intention with this tease? Is Jason cementing their friendship with a friendly gibe, or is he trying to belittle with a deliberate insult? And how does Dwayne interpret the tease? Will he laugh it off (“Nah, I think I’ll pass on drowning today”), or pummel Jason to the ground, believing he has been bullied? For the teaser and the teased, there is an intention and an interpretation to teasing. For better or for worse, every child, adolescent, and adult is teased; it is a normative part of living (Warm, 1997). Teasing can be playful or hurtful, but the line between the two is not always clear (Keltner, Capps, Kring, Young, & Heerey, 2001). The ambiguity between hostile and friendly teasing is part of the very nature of teasing, and teasing can cross into bullying (Mills & Carwile, 2009). Whereas teasing may be positive, bullying is always negative, as it intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another (Olweus, 2006). Teasing is universal, but there is tremendous variability in how well children cope with teasing and the extent to which their own gibes are designed to hurt others. Although some topics allow for lighthearted joking, having a parent in prison is a tender subject for children and is an easy target for cruel teasing. Furthermore, we know that children who report feeling high levels of stigma around their mothers’ incarceration tend to act out aggressively (Hagen & Myers, 2003). Their aggressive behavior can include bullying their peers. In contrast, many children of incarcerated parents exhibit positive behavior and adjustment (Nesmith & Ruhland, 2008), and we need to know more about the processes that facilitate such resilience. We propose that children’s prosocial teasing, prosocial behavior with peers, and avoidance of