Peer victimization
Peer victimization is harassment or bullying that occurs among members of the same peer group. It is often used to describe the experience among children or young people of being a target of the aggressive and abusive behavior of other children, who are not siblings and not necessarily age-mates.
Background/overview
Mass interest in the issue of peer victimization arose during the 1990s due to media coverage of student suicides, peer beatings, and school shootings, notably the tragedy in Columbine, Colorado. This led to an explosion of research attempting to assess bully-victim relationships and related players, what leads victims to experience negative outcomes and how widespread this problem was. Studies of peer victimization have also been conducted in the context of research investigating childhood relationships in general and how they are associated with school adjustment and achievement.Research has proven the problematic nature of peer victimization, identifying many negative outcomes such as low self-esteem, low school engagement, school avoidance, lower school achievement, learned helplessness, and depression. Peer victimization is especially prevalent and damaging in middle school, as during this time children are defining themselves by creating self-schemas and establishing self-esteem, both which will impact their future adult life; for this reason, most of the research on peer victimization focuses on this age group. They are also more vulnerable to peer rejection because needs for belonging and intimacy may be especially strong during early adolescence when children are working to solidify their peer groups.
Much of victimization research adopts a social psychology perspective, investigating how different types of peer victimization affect the individual and the different negative outcomes that occur. Some experimenters are adopting the term social victimization in order to acknowledge that victimization can take both verbal and nonverbal forms or be direct or indirect. They mostly focus on the types of victimization that can occur from multiple sources in a particular environment. Personality psychologists look at individual differences and effects in victims. They may also study individuals in a social context, determining which are more likely to be victimized, such as those who are socially withdrawn.
With the development of technology and the widespread access it gives to children and teenagers, peer victimization has become more prevalent through the Internet and cell phones than in years past. This form of victimization called cyberbullying has the potential for a much wider audience than traditional face-to-face victimization. It is also easier to hide from parents and teachers. Studies have found that because this form of victimization is done through the anonymity of the Internet or text messaging, bullies feel more comfortable being crueler to the victim. Without face-to-face communication, social standards become less important and behavior becomes less inhibited.
Major theoretical approaches
Operational definitions
Originally, researchers focused on overt forms of victimization, which were categorized as either physical or verbal. Later, researchers such as Nicki R. Crick argued for the existence of a more covert form of victimization which she observed primarily among females that she called relational victimization, during which a child's social relationships and social standing are attacked via methods such as peer exclusion. Today, victimization is largely operationally defined as either covert/relational victimization or overt/physical victimization, in which a child is threatened with or dealt corporeal damage.Research approaches and theories
The study of peer victimization draws from two major strands of research as identified by Seely, Tombari, Bennett & Dunkle called the "bullying strand" and the "peer relationship strand." The victimization aspect of the "bullying strand" focuses on what leads victims to disengage from school and suffer from damaging negative outcomes while others adjust. The peer relationship strand is more quantitatively oriented, studying fundamental factors related to peer victimization and the negative outcomes, paying special attention to what factors mediate the relationship between them. Interest in peer victimization in psychological research has been fairly recent, and therefore it appears that most researchers have drawn from other areas of study and contemporary applied theories to the context of peer victimization.The areas of the bullying strand that specifically pertain to peer victimization are studies of victimization prevalence, victims’ home environment, and effects of victimization in schools. Researchers started by determining the prevalence of peer victimization believing this would allow for the comparison of the problem over time, populations and after interventions. Prevalence research has been conducted in many different countries, cultures and classroom contexts. Studies utilize a variety of different methods such as self-report questionnaires, peer nominations, and teacher nominations have been used. Unfortunately, results show that in many contexts, the percentage of children that are victimized have fallen in a range between 5-90% Bullying strand research also focuses on the type of families that those who are victimized come from and what types of parenting styles they experienced Finally, a limited number of studies today focus on impacts of being bullied in a school setting and how it relates to achievement, truancy, and drop-out.
Studies examining peer victimization have also been conducted in the context of a body of research interested in peer relationships and how they affect educational performance and adjustment; this is identified as the "peer relationship strand." In the 1970s and 1980s, Steven Asher identified one form of a relationship—peer victimization—as a predictor of educational maladjustment. Later, a new perspective formed that considered peer victimization as a type of relationship existing on a continuum of relationship roles from healthy relations to detrimental ones instead of focusing on specific bully-victim relationships. Experimenters have also been interested in how early victimization effects individuals over time, focusing on school-related outcomes. Studies have largely worked to identify underlying factors that mediate negative outcomes.
To account for the difference in the severity of negative outcomes as a result of peer victimization, researchers have utilized theories of implicit peer relationships. In order to understand the social world, individuals create implicit theories about their social interactions A major determinant of how a person handles social evaluation is the degree to which they ascribe entity theories of personality, believing it their attributes are stable and unalterable or incremental theories of personality, viewing attributes as pliable able to be augmented Those who adopt entity theories of personality often pursue performance oriented goals, seeking to accrue positive and avoid negative evaluations of their competence. Since they view their attributes as constant, it is vital that they are desirable in order for them to maintain a positive self-image. People who hold incremental theories of personality endeavor towards mastery-oriented goals, focusing on learning and cultivating competence since as they believe their attributes are malleable. Accordingly, they should feel less threatened by others’ evaluations of their competence. When thinking about self-evaluation, implicit theories should affect the degree to which children base their self appraisals on peer judgements, determining whether negative social interactions undermine their well-being.
In regards to behavioral reactions to victimization, research has identified two categories of characteristic responses. One contains externalizing behaviors such as aggression, disruptive, antisocial, and acting out behaviors. Another constitutes internalizing behaviors like inhibited, anxiety, or heightened withdrawal.
Hawker and Boulton have used the rank theory of depression to explain the relationship between forms of victimization and types of maladjustment. According to the rank theory, internalizing problems such as depression are linked to a sense of powerlessness and of not belonging. Those who are physically victimized suffer from low resource-holding potential, which works in part to delineate social power in peer groups, while relational victimization directly affects children's sense of belonging instead.
Currently, researchers have become interested in the direction of the relationship between peer victimization and psychosocial adjustment. Many believe that the relation acts in a single direction: either peer victimization leads to maladjustment, or the relationship is reversed Some argue that the relationship is a bidirectional and causal relationship. As studies on the topic have generally utilized, cross-sectional research designs, a definitive answer has not been reached.
Empirical findings
A study by Cole, Maxwell, Dukewich & Yosick examined how physical and relational Targeted Peer Victimization victimization were related and measured their effects on different types of positive and negative cognitions. It was hypothesized that the link between peer victimization and depression was mediated by the creation of negative self-schemas. The study found gender differences in victimization, as Relational TPV was more common for girls and physical TPV was more common for boys. Also, children who were severely victimized exhibited less positive self-cognitions and more negative self-cognitions as well as more depressive symptoms. Yet when they controlled for the effects of relational TPV, the effects of physical TPV disappeared; it appears that relational TPV is more strongly associated with these outcomes and an investigation of physical TPV alone would not yield the same associations. Positive and negative self-cognitions were found to mediate the effect of relational victimization to symptoms of depression.Another study by Sinclair examined the relationship between physical and relational peer victimization with negative and positive self-cognitions as well. It was found that both types of victimization led to increases in negative self-cognitions and decreases in positive self-cognitions, though the effects were more pronounced when a child experienced relational victimization. While girls were found experienced more relational victimization than boys did and boys experienced more physical victimization than girls did, the negative effects of victimization on self-cognitions was stronger in boys. This may be due to one of their findings that boys are less likely to seek adult social support than girls are. A study conducted by Schmidt and Bagwell used surveys to gauge the reactions of victimization and their self evaluated friendships. The study found that girls benefited significantly from having stronger, reliable peer friendships in coping with victimization, while boys did not. A study by Snyder and colleagues studied 266 Kindergarten and first grade children in cases of observed victimization at school. The researchers hypothesized that children with higher recorded cases of victimization during recess would rank higher in antisocial and depressive behavior—according to parents and teachers—than those who do not. Results showed that girls were not as affected by boys in terms of their change in teacher and parent rated behavior whereas boys were heavily influenced by the amount of peer victimization that day.
Research seems to show that there is drastic difference in the way both genders respond to victimization from peers. Current studies on children indicate that regardless of observational method there is a marked effect of victimization, especially from peers. The magnitude of the effect on their behavior and mental health is heavily correlated with the situation of the victimization and the child's social environment at the time.
Schwartz et al. investigated the role of victimization in the development of children's behavior problems, focusing on both internalizing and externalizing problems. They hypothesized that higher levels of victimization would lead to increased level of behavioral problems. Child behavior was reported by teachers and parents, measured using the Child Behavior Checklist, and peer victimization was measured using peer nomination. Indeed, they found that peer victimization in middle childhood was associated with behavioral maladjustment on both a concurrent and prospective basis. Additionally, externalizing behaviors were more strongly associated with victimization than were internalizing behaviors.
Seals & Young investigated relationships between bullying and victimization with gender, grade level, ethnicity, self-esteem, and depression. Results showed that victims reported lower levels of self-esteem than did bullies and nonbullies/nonvictims. Additionally, victims had the highest depression scores as compared to bullies and nonbullies/nonvictims.
Research progress has also been made into recent mediums of victimization and bullying, notably online victimization. A study conducted by Mitchell et al. in 2007 collected data from over 2000 adolescents through telephone interviews. The most surprising finding was that those who reported being subject to online victimization in the past year are 96% likely to also report being subject to physical victimization. Another study conducted with over 3000 youth in the 5th, 8th and 11th grades using surveys concluded that Internet victimization shares common causal pathways with physical and verbal victimization.