Do Executive Functioning Difficulties Help Explain Peer Victimization in U.S. Elementary Schools?

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Do Executive Functioning Difficulties Help Explain Peer Victimization in U.S. Elementary Schools?

Peer victimization (PV) is a worldwide issue that has been empirically reported to have long-lasting detrimental consequences. Children with executive functioning (EF) difficulties are more likely to display externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors that make them less socially compatible. Although children with EF difficulties may be more likely to be victimized due to more frequent problem behaviors than children without EF difficulties, the extant evidence base for the inter-relation between PV and EF is currently limited. This project investigates the inter-relations between PV and EF during elementary school using a nationally representative and longitudinal dataset in the United States. Specifically, this project examines (a) whether children with EF difficulties are more likely to be victimized during elementary school, adjusting for socio-demographic factors, history of being victimized, achievement and behavior, and school-level factors; (b) which domain of EF (i.e., working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control) most predicts the likelihood of being victimized during elementary school, conditional on other explanatory factors; (c) which specific types of PV are children with EF difficulties most likely to experience; (d) whether and to what extent the change in the likelihood of being victimized is associated with the change in the most predictive EF domain between time points, using random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM); and (e) whether the relations between the change in the likelihood of being victimized and the change in the most predictive EF domain are stronger for vulnerable populations, using RI-CLPM but as stratified by child's gender, SES, race/ethnicity, and disability status.

Author

• Yangyang Wang, The Pennsylvania State University