Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 15, 2025
05:03
Author Spotlight: Unveiling Mechanisms of Stress Resilience - Significant Findings, Advancements, and Future Research
Published on: December 15, 2023
3.9K
Can classroom seating arrangements help establish a safe environment for victims? A randomized controlled trial
Nathalie A H Hoekstra1, Yvonne H M van den Berg1, Tessa A M Lansu1
1Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Aggressive Behavior
|August 23, 2024
Summary
Classroom seating arrangements do not improve student wellbeing. Seating bullied students near friends or away from bullies did not reduce victimization or improve classroom comfort, academic engagement, or internalizing problems.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Child Psychology
- Classroom Management
Background:
- Bullying is a prevalent issue affecting students globally.
- Teachers are crucial in supporting victimized students.
- Classroom seating arrangements are a potential intervention strategy, but their effectiveness for victim wellbeing is under-researched.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of classroom seating arrangements on victim wellbeing.
- To test an intervention separating victims from bullies and seating them near best friends.
- To assess effects on classroom comfort, internalizing problems, academic engagement, and victimization frequency.
Main Methods:
- A quasi-experimental design with 1746 Dutch upper elementary students.
- Experimental classrooms: victims seated away from bullies and near best friends.
- Control classrooms: random seating arrangement.
- Analysis using mixed-effects models.
Main Results:
- Due to ethical and practical constraints, the intervention primarily tested the effect of seating victims next to best friends.
- No significant support was found for the intervention's effectiveness in improving victim wellbeing.
- Exploratory analyses on victim-bully proximity also yielded no significant effects.
Conclusions:
- Modifying classroom seating arrangements for victims, bullies, and friends does not appear to enhance victim wellbeing.
- Further research is needed to explore alternative strategies for mitigating bullying and supporting victimized students.
- Practical implications suggest a need for different approaches to classroom interventions against bullying.
Related Concept Videos
02:01Group Design
8.9K
The most basic experimental design involves two groups: the experimental group and the control group. The two groups are designed to be the same except for one difference— experimental manipulation. The experimental group gets the experimental manipulation—that is, the treatment or variable being tested—and the control group does not. Since experimental manipulation is the only difference between the experimental and control groups, we can be sure that any differences between...
8.9K
01:13Randomized Experiments
6.8K
The randomization process involves assigning study participants randomly to experimental or control groups based on their probability of being equally assigned. Randomization is meant to eliminate selection bias and balance known and unknown confounding factors so that the control group is similar to the treatment group as much as possible. A computer program and a random number generator can be used to assign participants to groups in a way that minimizes bias.
Simple randomization
Simple...
Simple randomization
Simple...
6.8K
03:20The Stanford Prison Experiment
23.1K
The famous and controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University, demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts.
23.1K
01:25Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding
87
Confounding is a critical issue in epidemiological studies, often leading to misleading conclusions about associations between exposures and outcomes. It occurs when the relationship between the exposure and the outcome is mixed with the effects of other factors that influence the outcome. Given that, addressing confounding is of high importance for drawing accurate inferences in research.
Confounding can be addressed at both the design phase of a study and through analytical methods after data...
Confounding can be addressed at both the design phase of a study and through analytical methods after data...
87
02:07Blind Procedures
10.6K
Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which...
10.6K
01:11Blinding
2.4K
Blinding is a commonly used method of not telling participants which treatment a subject is receiving. Blinding is a critical part of a randomized control trial or RCT. It reduces the bias that affects the results. In an RCT, blinding is used in the form of a placebo. A placebo effect occurs when untreated subjects falsely believe they have received the treatment and report improved symptoms. A placebo or a dummy treatment is administered to subjects to negate the bias caused by such an effect.
2.4K