Citation

Rosen LH, Beron KJ, Underwood MK. Soc. Dev. 2017; 26(2): 227-247.

Affiliation

The University of Texas at Dallas.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sode.12185

PMID

28408789

PMCID

PMC5386506

Abstract

Social victimization refers to being targeted by behaviors intended to harm one's social status or relationships (Underwood, 2003), including malicious gossip, friendship manipulation, and social exclusion (both verbal and non-verbal). The current study examined social victimization experiences longitudinally from middle childhood through late adolescence. Participants (N = 273, 139 females) reported on their social victimization experiences in grades 4-11 (ages 9 to 16 years). Using mixture (group-based) modeling, four social victimization trajectories were identified: low, medium decreasing, medium increasing, and elevated. High parent-child relationship quality decreased the odds of being in the elevated group compared to the low group; however, parent-child relationship quality was no longer a significant predictor when emotional dysfunction was added to the model. Higher emotional dysfunction and male gender increased the odds of being in the elevated group and medium increaser group relative to the low group even after controlling for parent-child relationship quality. Implications for intervention and future research directions are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

developmental trajectories; peer victimization; social aggression