Peer victimization through a trauma lens: Identifying who is at risk for negative outcomes

Facing ambiguity: Social threat sensitivity mediates the association between peer victimization and adolescent anxiety

Peer victimization is a developmentally salient stressor that elevates adolescents' risk for anxiety disorders. However, modifiable mechanisms that explain this link and can be targeted via therapeutic interventions remain poorly understood. Drawing from psychobiological models implicating aberrant threat sensitivity in the development and maintenance of psychopathology, the current study investigated sensitivity to peer-related social threats as a mechanism underlying the association between peer victimization and anxiety. A sample of 197 dyads of early adolescents (M age = 12.02; 46% female) and parents/guardians (M age = 41.46; 90% female) completed online surveys assessing peer victimization, sensitivity to potential (i.e., ambiguous) social threats, and anxiety. Controlling for potentially confounding demographic and psychosocial factors, both self- and parent-reported peer victimization were positively associated with adolescent anxiety symptoms. Additionally, there were significant indirect effects from self- and parent-reported peer victimization to anxiety via social threat sensitivity. Supplemental analyses indicated unique effects of covert, but not overt, peer victimization on social threat sensitivity and anxiety. The findings provide initial evidence that peer victimization experiences lower adolescents' threshold for interpreting threats in ambiguous social situations, which contributes to heightened anxiety. These results implicate social threat sensitivity as a potential therapeutic target for interrupting links from peer victimization to psychological distress.

Mental health comorbidities following peer victimization across childhood and adolescence: a 20-year longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

Peer victimization is associated with a wide range of mental health problems in youth, yet few studies described its association with mental health comorbidities.

METHODS

To test the association between peer victimization timing and intensity and mental health comorbidities, we used data from 1216 participants drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a population-based birth cohort. Peer victimization was self-reported at ages 6-17 years, and modeled as four trajectory groups: low, childhood-limited, moderate adolescence-emerging, and high-chronic. The outcomes were the number and the type of co-occurring self-reported mental health problems at age 20 years. Associations were estimated using negative binomial and multinomial logistic regression models and adjusted for parent, family, and child characteristics using propensity score inverse probability weights.

RESULTS

Youth in all peer victimization groups had higher rates of co-occurring mental health problems and higher likelihood of comorbid internalizing-externalizing problems [odds ratios ranged from 2.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-2.79 for childhood-limited to 4.34, 95% CI 3.15-5.98 for high-chronic victimization] compared to those in the low victimization group. The strength of these associations was highest for the high-chronic group, followed by moderate adolescence-emerging and childhood-limited groups. All groups also presented higher likelihood of internalizing-only problems relative to the low peer victimization group.

CONCLUSIONS

Irrespective of timing and intensity, self-reported peer victimization was associated with mental health comorbidities in young adulthood, with the strongest associations observed for high-chronic peer victimization. Tackling peer victimization, especially when persistent over time, could play a role in reducing severe and complex mental health problems in youth.

Below average motor skills predict victimization from childhood bullies: A study of adults with ADHD

Children with ADHD are frequently clumsy and involved in bullying, both as victims and perpetrators. The relationship between motor skills and bully status is poorly understood. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of motor skills in childhood on bully victimization/perpetration in those with ADHD. In this cross-sectional study, 403 adults diagnosed with ADHD filled out a questionnaire on their recall of bully victimization, bully perpetration, performance in physical education (PE) (defined as performance below average in i.e., ball dexterity, coordination or agility) as a proxy for motor skills, and academic skills at age 12, as compared to their peers. Of the current sample, 63% remembered being victimized and 31% noted they were perpetrators. Thirty-two percent recalled that they performed below average in PE. Being diagnosed with ADHD and having poor motor skills was strongly associated with bully victimization (OR = 2.63; 95% CI:1.62, 4.27, p < .001). Victimization was more common during all measured time periods, from nursery school until the age of 15, among those with poor performance in PE as compared to those without poor performance. No relationship was found between poor motor skills and bully perpetration. CONCLUSION: A crucial role of the cerebellum is coordination and the linking of sequenced motor actions through milli-second timing. Aberrations in this ability makes a person present as "different", which was stated as the most common reason for social exclusion by other children. Therefore, subtle clumsiness (presumed by poor performance in PE class) is suggested to mirror deficits in social skills, which is intuitively observed by peers, leading to victimization.

Psychometric properties, validity and insights of the School Bullying Questionnaire (CIE-A) in secondary schools of the Valencian Community (Spain)

Besides its several threats to health, welfare, social and academic development and performance of kids and teenagers, school bullying remains highlighted as one of the most relevant related challenges for educational, behavioral and legal sciences worldwide. Moreover, the lack of research on the field and the crucial but unattended need to count on psychometrically suitable and valid tools to detect school bullying make difficult understanding its contexts, dynamics and possible solutions. Objective The aim of this study was to thoroughly present in detail the psychometric properties and validity issues of the School Bullying Questionnaire (CIE-A) among secondary students. Methods A regionwide sample of 810 (47.2% girls) secondary students attending to 21 schools across the Valencian Community (Spain), aged M = 14.40 (SD = 1.61) years, responded to a paper-based questionnaire containing the 36-item version of the CIE-A and various scales related to psychosocial health and wellbeing, used as criterion variables. Results The outcomes of this study suggest that the CIE-A has a clear factor structure, an optimal set of item loadings and goodness-of-fit indexes. Further, that CIE-A has shown good internal consistency and reliability indexes, coherent associations with other mental health and academic performance variables, and the possibility to assess gender differences on bullying-related factors among secondary students. Conclusion The CIE-A may represent a suitable tool for assessing bullying in a three-factorial approach (i.e., victimization, symptomatology, and intimidation), offering optimal psychometric properties, validity and reliability insights, and the potentiality of being applied in the school environment. Actions aimed at improving the school coexistence and the well-being of secondary students, targeting potential bullied/bully profiles or seeking to assess demographic and psychosocial correlates of bullying among teenagers, might get benefited from this questionnaire.