Newman, R. S. (2008). Adaptive and nonadaptive help-seeking with peer harassment: An integrative perspective of coping and self-regulation. Educational Psychologist, 43(1), 1-15.
Newman, as the prime objective of this article, seek to examine the dilemma that students faces while in school when harassed and the approaches that most apply to counteract the issues at hand. According to him, when peers harassments occur, students often find themselves in a dilemma of whether to ask for aid from their teachers or not. The best options and perhaps the necessary one seems to seek assistance. However, this is attributed to some social disadvantages. As a result, most choose or are expected to deal with their interpersonal issues and solve them on their own. According to studies, two theoretical viewpoints, which include self-regulation and coping provide a basis for conceptualizing the adaptive search of help as a strategy for resolving these peer harassments. As a key feature of this strategy, the learners recognizes that help is paramount in attaining safety. Based on this, Newman undertakes a research review, which supports this conceptualization. In his research, he focuses on studies that center on students’ view of harassment with regards to the need for help and integrate these with developmental studies on aggression and conflict among peers. He also contrasts adaptive help seeking with non-adaptive responses to harassment.
Newman notes that safety and the support for student’s socioemotional health are essential in ensuring a conducive learning environment. This review focuses on elementary schools, where children are exposed to diverse social stressors in which some are normative while others are more serious and dangerous. As an example, Newman notes that learners face interpersonal demands for forming and maintaining friends as well as identifying themselves with a peer group. He records that this has enormous implications on the self-esteem and emotional stress a child. Although rivalry is inevitable, when this contention is accompanied by physical aggression, taunts, exclusion, and threats, students often experience loneliness, anxiety, and sadness. Furthermore, while examining previous research done on the same, Newman affirms that incidents of bullying and peer victimization have reached alarming heights, which have had profound consequences on the academic excellence as well as socioemotional development and mental health. Without the psychological resources and social skills necessary for handling this threats and challenges, some students opt to seek assistance from their teachers or friends.
Newman’s arguments on coping notes that the stressors that students face in school range from everyday hassles such as academic pressure to chronic conditions such as poorly trained tutors to acute, traumatic events such as violence and intimidation form classmate. As with stress, Newman notes that researchers have defined and operationalized coping differently. Studies have identified different dimensions, categories, functions, and types of coping. For instance, the classifications of coping comprise primary-control verse secondary-control coping, approach verse avoidance coping, cognitive verse behavioral coping and problem-focused verse emotion-focused coping. As a strategy for adaptive help-seeking in coping, victims mostly pursue help or support by either seeking emotional assistance or information on how to solve the faced problem. However, coping can also be maladaptive or non-adaptive. Unlike the adaptive strategy, maladaptive fails to promote long-term development of useful resources and may lead to a short-term reduction of stress. Newman records that two strategies are employed by victims who use the non-adaptive approach to coping, which includes the avoidance to seek help or dependent search for aid.
On the other hand, the self-regulatory perspective according to Newman complements the coping view. This viewpoint has also been operationalized empirically and defined theoretically in different ways and domains such as mental disorders, academic learning, addictive behavior, and physical health. Students’ self-regulate in a situation that may or may not be stressful. Newman also notes that this can be volitional or involuntary. For instance, in academic difficulties, this perspective can serve as an outline for thinking about how learners respond to peer harassments. The process of adaptive help-seeking can similarly be perceived in two ways: with emphasis on either components or calibration. Calibration involves the child prudently reflecting and acting on three choices: first, the necessity for help; second, the target for the request; and third, the content of the request. The process of seeking help can also be viewed in a componential way through specifying affective-motivational and social-cognitive sub-processes involved in making the three decisions.
Newman also examines the contextual variable that relates to the process of seeking help. Although the appraisal for stressor is personal and highly subjective, many research has supported several generalizations about the aspects of peer harassment that are salient to students. These are influenced by the availability of support and the environmental cues from the incidents. The availability of supports centers on teachers and friends that a student interacts while in school. The environmental cues focus on the type of incident and the location of the occurrence. Personal characteristics can also account for how student perceive and respond to peer conflict. Research notes that student’s grade level, gender, affective-motivational processes, competence, emotion, and goals are the primary attributing factors.
References
Newman, R. S. (2008). Adaptive and nonadaptive help-seeking with peer harassment: An integrative perspective of coping and self-regulation. Educational Psychologist, 43(1), 1-15.
