Dynamic Changes in Peer Victimization and Adjustment Across Middle School: Does Friends' Victimization Alleviate Distress?

Peer Victimization and School Engagement among Chinese Adolescents: Does Classroom-Level Victimization Matter?

Peer victimization has been demonstrated to have a long-lasting negative impact on adolescents' psychological well-being, yet its impact on school engagement is inconclusive, particularly during high school. In addition, research about the role of classroom-level victimization in the association between individual-level peer victimization and adolescents' school engagement remains underexplored. Previous research has relied solely on self-report measures to assess peer victimization, potentially limiting the scope of understanding. This study investigated the moderating effects of both student-reported and teacher-reported classroom-level victimization on the association between individual-level peer victimization and school engagement among Chinese adolescents. A sample of 2,803 high school students (aged from 14-19 years, Mage = 15.43 years, SD = 0.56; 48.5% boys) from 48 classes (Mclass size = 58.62, SD = 3.65) completed measures of peer victimization and school engagement in October 2023. Their homeroom teachers (85.4% males; Mage = 44.17 years, SD = 7.70) reported overall victimization in each class. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that, at the individual level, adolescents who reported higher victimization exhibited lower school engagement. Notably, this association was significant only when the classroom-level victimization was high. Furthermore, these significant findings were observed for student-reported classroom-level victimization, but not for teacher-reported victimization. The findings suggest that reducing classroom-level victimization may help mitigate the negative effect of peer victimization on school engagement, underscoring the need to consider classroom environment when developing anti-bullying interventions for high school students.

Self-ratings and peer-ratings of bullying perpetrators: Intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that differentiate bully subgroups

Using a large sample of students (N = 1373; 40% girls; Mage = 14 years) from 54 classrooms in South Korea, this study identified subtypes of bullies based on specific combinations of self-reports and peer-reports and examined the intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that explain the differences in characteristics between these identified groups. Latent profile analysis identified four subgroups of bullies: (a) non-bullies (59.5%), (b) peer-identified bullies (21%), (c) self-identified bullies (9.8%), and (d) self/peer-identified bullies (9.7%). Multinomial logistic hierarchical analysis revealed significant differences between the bully subgroups on the four intrapersonal factors (i.e., anti-bullying attitudes, perception of teachers' reaction to bullying, delinquent behavior, and depression; odds ratios [OR] ranged from 0.24 to 3.13) and three of the four interpersonal factors (i.e., overestimated popularity, rejection, and victimization; ORs ranged from 0.39 to 2.26). More specifically, compared to the peer-identified bully group, the non-bully and self/peer-identified bully groups showed opposite patterns of anti-bullying attitudes, delinquent behavior, and peer status (ORs ranged from 0.46 to 3.13). Relative to the peer-identified bully group, the self-identified bully group was more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms and perceive themselves as being victimized, was less likely to endorse anti-bullying attitudes, and had a less positive perception of teacher's reaction to bullying (ORs ranged from 0.24 to 1.40). Gender differences emerged as well. Implications for optimizing the screening of bullying perpetrators and anti-bullying interventions are discussed.

The health context paradox in the relationship between victimization, classroom bullying attitudes, and adolescent depression: An analysis based on the hlm model

From the perspective of the health context paradox, this study examined the relationship between adolescent victimization and depression based on the diathesis-stress model and attribution theory using a nested model. A survey was conducted on 3743 Chinese adolescents using the Bullying & Victimization Scale, Rumination Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, and Bullying Attitude Scale. The results disclosed that victimization had a positive impact on depression, rumination played a mediating role between victimization and depression, and classroom anti-bullying attitudes heightened the correlation between victimization and developing depression as well as between victimization and engaging in rumination thinking. This study provides a new cross-level perspective to reduce the occurrence of depression among bullied adolescents and further validates the health context paradox, expanding its applicability range. It also provides new experimental research references for reducing depression among bullied adolescents from a more comprehensive, cross-level perspective in the future.

Diversity protects: The role of school and classroom racial/ethnic diversity on the experience of peer victimization during the middle school years

The effects of school and classroom racial/ethnic diversity on peer victimization, self-blame, and perceived school safety were examined in a racially/ethnically diverse sample of students followed over the three years of middle school. Sixth grade students (N = 5,991, 52% female; M = 11.63 years) were recruited from 26 urban middle schools that systematically varied in racial/ethnic diversity. Based on student self-report, the sample was 31.6% Latino/Mexican, 19.6% White, 17.4%, Multiethnic/Biracial, 13% East/Southeast Asian, 10.9% Black, and 6.9% Other very small racial/ethnic groups. Each school had a structural diversity score based on the number and size of racial/ethnic groups enrolled. Using a novel method based on course schedules and class rosters, each student's individual exposure to diversity in their classes was assessed to capture dynamic diversity. Latent growth modeling showed that structural school diversity and dynamic classroom diversity were both related to less victimization at the start of middle school and a decrease over time. Dynamic classroom diversity buffered the associations between victimization and self-blame and between victimization and perceiving school as unsafe. Dynamic classroom diversity was more protective than structural school diversity. Implications for practice, intervention and policies to promote school racial/ethnic diversity were discussed.

Does having vulnerable friends help vulnerable youth? The co-evolution of friendships, victimization, and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents' social networks

This study examined whether having vulnerable friends helps or hurts victimized and depressed (i.e., vulnerable) adolescents and whether this depends on classroom supportive norms. Students (n = 1461, 46.7% girls, 93.4% Han nationality) were surveyed four times from seventh and eighth grade (Mage  = 13 years) in 2015 and 2016 in Central China. Longitudinal social network analyses indicated that having vulnerable friends can both hurt and help vulnerable adolescents. Depressed adolescents with depressed friends increased in victimization over time. Victimized adolescents with victimized friends increased in victimization but decreased in depressive symptoms. These processes were most likely in classrooms with high supportive norms. Having friends and a supportive classroom may hurt vulnerable adolescents' social position but help victims' emotional development.

Social Adjustment of Problem-Talk Partners Moderates Associations Between Self-Perceived Victimization and Depressive Symptoms

This paper examines the moderating role of problem-talk partnerships with peers who are rejected, victimized, or unpopular on links between self-perceived victimization by peers and depressive symptoms. Problem-talk partnerships are friendships that involve frequent discussion of problems and personal struggles. 267 adolescents (152 girls; mean age of 14.4 years) participated in a short-term prospective study with identical measures administered in two annual waves. The adolescents completed a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing peer victimization and depression. They also completed a peer nomination inventory and identified friends with whom they frequently discuss problems. High levels of peer nominated victimization, social rejection, and unpopularity among problem-talk partners were linked to elevated associations between self-reported victimization and depressive symptoms. The effects for unpopularity levels among problem-talk partners were moderated by gender. Compared to boys, girls' adjustment was more strongly influenced by unpopularity among problem-talk partners. Conversely, friendships with peers who were not problem-talk partners did not have a consistent moderating role. The full pattern of findings highlights the need to consider the social adjustment of dyadic partners when examining the psychosocial impact of perceived victimization.

Classmates' Discrimination Experiences and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Evidence From Random Assignment of Students to Classrooms in South Korea

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between classmates' discrimination experiences and an individual student's depressive symptoms. A set of social-psychological and behavioral variables were considered as potential mechanisms underlying this association.

METHODS

The data came from the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study of seventh graders in South Korea. This study leveraged quasi-experimental variation generated from random assignment of students to classes within schools to address the endogenous school selection problem and account for the unobserved school-level confounders. To formally test for mediation, Sobel tests were conducted and peer attachment, school satisfaction, smoking, and drinking were explored as mechanism variables.

RESULTS

An increase in classmates' discrimination experiences was positively associated with an individual student's depressive symptoms. This association remained statistically significant even after adjusting for personal discrimination experience, a myriad of individual- and class-level covariates, as well as school fixed effects (b = 0.325, p < .05). Classmates' discrimination experiences were also associated with a decline in peer attachment and school satisfaction (b = -0.386, p < .01 and b = -0.399, p < .05, respectively). These psychosocial factors explained about one-third of the association between classmates' discrimination experiences and individual students' depressive symptoms.

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study suggest that exposure to peer-level discrimination experience leads to friend detachment and school dissatisfaction, which in turn increases an individual student's depressive symptoms. This study reaffirms the importance of fostering a more cohesive and nondiscriminatory school environment to promote adolescents' psychological health and well-being.

Within-person reciprocal associations between peer victimization and need for approval

Prior research links need for approval (NFA; the extent to which self-worth is contingent on peer approval or disapproval) to critical developmental outcomes, but little is known about how NFA develops over time or within social contexts. To address this gap, the present study used a sophisticated analytic approach (autoregressive latent trajectory modeling with standardized residuals) to examine dynamic associations between one salient social experience-peer victimization-and two dimensions of NFA, conceptualized in terms of approach motivation (NFAapproach; enhanced self-worth based on peer approval) and avoidance motivation (NFAavoid; depleted self-worth based on peer disapproval). Following 636 youth (338 girls; Mage = 7.96 years at Wave 1; 66.7% White; 35.0% subsidized school lunch) from second to seventh grade, analyses revealed that peer victimization predicts subsequent increases in NFAavoid, which in turn predicts subsequent increases in victimization. Findings also revealed that although mean levels of NFAavoid decrease during childhood, increases or decreases in NFA become more entrenched. Thus, childhood peer victimization may disrupt normative decreases in NFAavoid and contribute to a cycle in which negative peer judgments increasingly foster low self-worth and further peer difficulties. Preventing this cycle may require encouraging peer-victimized youth to base their self-worth on internal standards rather than peer feedback while helping them develop positive relationships that promote self-worth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Personal and Witnessed Cyber Victimization Experiences Among Adolescents at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Personal experiences with cyber victimization among adolescents have been consistently associated with well-being problems. Few studies have examined the impact of witnessing cyber victimization on adolescent well-being. The current study examines adolescents' personal and witnessed experiences with cyber victimization during the beginning stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The main aim of the study is to test whether witnessing cyber victimization incidents among peers strengthens or weakens the association between personal cyber victimization incidents and adolescents' feelings of anxiety. Adolescents from the United States were recruited via social media site advertisements. An online survey was completed by 992 adolescents (M age = 16.09, SD = 1.24) from ethnically diverse backgrounds (49% White, 18% Asian/Asian-American, 14% Latinx, 9% Black/African-American, and 10% Other). The key results revealed a significant moderating role of witnessed cyber victimization incidents. Among adolescents who witnessed low levels of cyberbullying, the more they were personally cyber victimized, the higher their levels of anxiety. However, for adolescents who witnessed higher levels of cyberbullying incidents, the association between personal cyber victimization and anxiety was not significant. The findings suggest that adolescents who personally experience cyber victimization may feel less alone in their plight and thus, less anxious if they also witness others being targeted online.

Lower Levels of Classroom Aggression Predict Stronger Relations Between Peer Victimization and Reactive Versus Proactive Aggression

We examined the concurrent relations of children's reactive and proactive aggression with their experience of peer victimization. Extending previous research, we assessed these relations at both the child and classroom levels. We predicted that reactive aggression would relate positively to peer victimization, proactive aggression would relate negatively to peer victimization, and that these relations would vary with classroom levels of aggression. Participants included 1,291 fourth- and fifth-grade children (681 girls; M age = 10.14 years) and their 72 teachers from 9 schools in one public school district in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Children completed self-report measures of peer victimization and teachers completed measures of aggression for each child in their classrooms. Via two-level regression (level 1 = child; level 2 = classroom), reactive aggression related positively to peer victimization and proactive aggression related negatively to peer victimization. The positive relation between reactive aggression and peer victimization was only significant in classrooms with low levels of reactive aggression. The negative relation between proactive aggression and peer victimization was only significant in classrooms with low levels of proactive aggression. Our hypotheses were supported and offered further evidence for differential relations of reactive and proactive aggression with peer victimization at the child level, while demonstrating the important role of classroom norms for aggression in moderating these relations.

Peer victimization, schooling format, and adolescent internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: Between- and within-person associations across ninth grade

The current longitudinal study examined how between-person (BP) differences and within-person (WP) fluctuations in adolescents' peer victimization and schooling format across ninth grade related to changes in their internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 388 adolescents (61% female; Mage = 14.02) who completed three online surveys, administered 3 months apart, from November 2020 to May 2021. Multilevel modeling revealed BP (time-invariant) and WP (time-varying) effects of peer victimization and school instructional format (i.e., in-person; hybrid; online) on internalizing symptoms while accounting for potentially confounding demographic (e.g., gender) and contextual (e.g., COVID-19 positivity rates) factors. Results indicated that adolescents who experienced higher overall levels of peer victimization across the school year, compared to those who experienced lower victimization, reported more severe internalizing symptoms. Whereas relative WP increases in peer victimization predicted corresponding increases in adolescents' depressive and somatic symptoms regardless of schooling format, WP increases in peer victimization only predicted elevated anxiety during months when students attended fully in-person, but not online, school. Adolescents who spent a greater proportion of their school year attending online school also reported less peer victimization across the year. Findings highlight WP fluctuations in the effects of peer victimization on internalizing and contextual variations depending on schooling format.

Exposure to peer aggression and adolescent sleep problems: Moderation by parental acceptance

Many adolescents experience or witness aggression by peers at school. The purpose of the current study was to examine associations between exposure to peer aggression (i.e., peer victimization and witnessing school violence) and sleep problems and whether these associations are moderated by parental acceptance. Participants included 272 adolescents attending high school (M age = 17.27 years; 49% female; 59% White/European American, 41% Black/African American). Adolescents reported on exposure to peer aggression, parental acceptance, and two key sleep domains: sleep quality problems and daytime sleepiness. Results indicated that exposure to peer aggression was directly associated with poor sleep quality and sleepiness. Furthermore, peer victimization and witnessing school violence interacted with parental acceptance to predict sleep quality. Specifically, exposure to peer aggression was associated with sleep quality problems at higher (but not lower) levels of parental acceptance. The lowest levels of sleep quality problems were apparent at low levels of peer aggression and high levels of parental acceptance, but parental acceptance did not protect adolescents with high exposure to peer aggression against sleep problems. Findings illustrate the importance of considering moderators of effects and the conjoint roles of family and peer processes when considering individual differences in adolescents' sleep. Future research should examine whether parental strategies targeted to address peer victimization are protective against the detrimental effects of exposure to peer aggression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Peer network studies and interventions in adolescence

Peer influence occurs across a wide variety of behavioral domains, which is an important reason for peer-led interventions: interventions in which peers are involved in the delivery of the program. These programs are promising in combatting undesirable behaviors (e.g. risk behavior) and promoting desirable behavior (e.g. healthy lifestyle), but it was shown recently that the effectiveness of these programs is modest at best and the mechanisms underlying programs' effectiveness are poorly understood. Research is needed that promotes understanding of the relative, cumulative, and interactive impacts of different types of peer relations and unpacks the various mechanisms underlying peer selection and influence. This has the potential to yield insights that advance theory and optimize peer-led interventions.

Why Does Classroom-Level Victimization Moderate the Association Between Victimization and Depressive Symptoms? The "Healthy Context Paradox" and Two Explanations

The present longitudinal study examined how and why classroom-level victimization moderates the prospective association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms with 2,643 third- and fourth-graders (M_age  = 10.01 years) in China. Multilevel modeling revealed that peer victimization was more strongly associated with increasing depressive symptoms in classrooms with lower classroom-level victimization. Moreover, two mechanisms were identified to explain the moderating effect of classroom-level victimization. First, low classroom-level victimization reduced victimized children's received friendship nominations from peers, thereby leading to increases in depressive affect. Second, low classroom-level victimization affected victimized children's depressive symptoms through damage to their social self-concept. These findings provide support for the "healthy context paradox" in the Chinese culture, and highlight the mechanisms of this phenomenon.

The Role of Defending Norms in Victims' Classroom Climate Perceptions and Psychosocial Maladjustment in Secondary School

Victims of bullying are at increased risk of developing psychosocial problems. It is often claimed that it helps victims when others stand up against the bullying and when defending is typical (descriptive norm) or rewarded with popularity (popularity norm) in classrooms. However, recent work on the healthy context paradox suggests that victims – paradoxically – tend to do worse in more positive classrooms. Therefore, it is possible that defending norms are counterproductive and exacerbate victims’ adjustment difficulties, possibly because social maladjustment is more apparent in classrooms where everybody else is doing well. The current study examined whether descriptive and popularity norms for defending predicted victims’ classroom climate perceptions and psychosocial adjustment. Using data of 1,206 secondary school students from 45 classrooms (M_age = 13.61), multi-level analyses indicated that descriptive norms for defending increased rather than decreased negative classroom climate perceptions and maladjustment of victimized youths. In contrast, popularity norms for defending positively predicted all students’ classroom climate perceptions and feelings of belonging, except victims’ self-esteem. Interventions may benefit more from promoting popularity norms for defending rather than descriptive norms for defending in secondary schools.

A Dynamic Examination of the Associations between Shyness, Psychological Difficulties, and Stressful Life Events during Early Adolescence

Although numerous studies have established linkages between shyness and later psychological difficulties, most extant research did not examine variation in shyness over time in relation to variation in psychological difficulties over time or possible environmental factors of influence outside of the school context. The current study used multi-level modelling to simultaneously examine time-invariant and time-variant associations between shyness, the psychological difficulties of depressive symptoms and loneliness, and stressful life events at four waves across 1 year in a community sample of 271 young adolescents (51% boys; M_age = 11.83 years at W1). Results revealed significant time-variant and time-invariant effects when loneliness was examined as a predictor of shyness. In addition, a significant interaction effect indicated that shyness decreased over time for those young adolescents who experienced few stressful life events, highlighting an understudied moderator of risk. Overall, findings have important implications for understanding the psychological concomitants of shyness as well as etiological models of shyness.

How School Contexts Shape the Relations Among Adolescents' Beliefs, Peer Victimization, and Depressive Symptoms

The present research examined how school contexts shape the extent to which beliefs about the potential for change (implicit theories) interact with social adversity to predict depressive symptoms. A preregistered multilevel regression analysis using data from 6,237 ninth-grade adolescents in 25 U.S. high schools showed a three-way interaction: Implicit theories moderated the associations between victimization and depressive symptoms only in schools with high levels of school-level victimization, but not in schools with low victimization levels. In high-victimization schools, adolescents who believed that people cannot change (an entity theory of personality) were more depressed when they were victimized more frequently. Thus, the mental health correlates of adolescents' implicit theories depend on both personal experiences and the norms in the context.