Poster #45 - Longitudinal Association Between Peer Victimization and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: The Moderating Role of Implicit Attitudes

• In Event: 1-042 - Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: 03 - Peer Relations

Abstract/Description

Research has increasingly highlighted the importance of peer victimization as a developmentally salient, and perhaps critical stressor, particularly in adolescence. Prevalence estimates suggest that between 5% and 20% of adolescents identify as victims of bullying. Peer victimization leads to a wide array of negative developmental outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing symptoms, academic achievement, and physical health difficulties. However, not all individuals who are victimized experience maladaptive outcomes. Thus, recent work has examined moderators of the association between peer victimization and maladjustment. To date, moderators have addressed aspects of peer victimization itself (e.g., its chronicity, form, or the embedded social context), or general risk factors with multifinal outcomes (e.g., family dysfunction, poor social support). This study offered an alternate approach by examining peer victimization as a predictor of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), as moderated by implicit attitudes towards self-injury, a specific construct with theoretical relevance specific to this outcome. In other words, peer victimization was conceptualized as a stressor within a vulnerability-stress framework. It was hypothesized that adolescents with a known risk factor for NSSI may be especially at-risk if they experienced high levels of peer victimization.

NSSI is defined as the deliberate self-inflicted injury of bodily tissue without intent to die. NSSI is particularly pronounced among adolescents, with prevalence rates ranging from 15% to 60% among general and clinical samples, respectively, yet longitudinal risk factors have been underexplored. In particular, few have identified factors that predict NSSI beyond the effects of depression. Extant data suggest that favorable implicit attitudes towards cutting may be a particularly potent prospective predictor of NSSI, and may suggest a vulnerability among adolescents who experience stress. An interaction effect between peer victimization and implicit attitudes towards cutting was predicted in this longitudinal investigation.

Participants included 633 adolescents (54% female; 53% non-White; M age = 16. 01 years, SD = .76) in three regular education high schools within a lower middle class region of the southeastern US. At Time 1, sociometric peer nominations were conducted to derive measures of overt and relational victimization (moderate-highly correlated; combined into a single composite mean). Implicit attitudes towards cutting were assessed using the IAT-Cutting. Depressive symptoms were measured with the MFQ. At Times 1 and 2 (i.e., one year later), adolescents reported the frequency of their engagement in five forms of NSSI, using a checklist commonly used within this area of research.

A hierarchical multiple regression revealed a significant interaction effect between peer victimization and implicit attitudes towards cutting at Time 1 on Time 2 NSSI, after controlling for baseline NSSI, depressive symptoms, and gender (all p’s < .05). Post hoc probing revealed that among participants with higher implicit associations towards cutting, higher levels of peer-reported peer victimization were associated longitudinally with greater frequencies of NSSI. Findings offer an important extension of prior work on the outcomes associated with peer victimization, and suggest utility in examining moderators of peer victimization effects that are theoretically tied to the outcome of interest.

Authors

• William L Booker, UNC Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Matteo Giletta, Tilburg University

• Adam Bryant Miller, UNC-Chapel Hill

• Leigh A Spivey, UNC Chapel Hill

• Mitchell J. Prinstein, UNC-Chapel Hill