Poster #233 - Who is Picking on me? Relationships With Provocateurs Moderates the Association Between Victimization and Depression

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Peer victimization in adolescence has been associated with greater anxiety and depression (Reijntjes et al., 2010). Card and Hodges (2007) found that peer victimization is positively associated with having more antipathy relationships with peers, characterized by mutual disliking. Further, victimization by disliked peers, beyond victimization by friends or other peers, has been found to be uniquely related to internalizing problems (Card & Hodges, 2007). The current study expands on this research by using a daily-diary methodology to study peer provocations, the relationships youth have with provocateurs, and how the relationship context of provocations is associated with peer victimization. We also explored if the relationships that youth have with provocateurs would moderate how adolescent peer victimization was related to internalizing problems. Based on the above, we expected that when a greater portion of provocateurs were described as enemies, victimization would more strongly predict internalizing problems.
Research assistants called 257 participants (Mage = 12.84, SD = 0.35, 60.3% female, 83.3% non-Hispanic white) in the early evening for 10 consecutive school days. RAs asked participants whether anyone at school had done anything mean to them that day, and if so, participants answered a structured set of questions about each event, including who their provocateurs were. These responses were later coded by two RAs. After completing the daily diary assessment, youth completed self-reports of depression, anxiety, and victimization online.
To date, coding of events has been completed for 170 participants, 100 of whom reported at least one provoking event happening to them (e.g., verbal aggression, relational aggression). Descriptions of the identity of the transgressor were coded by two RAs into three possible categories: friend, enemy or disliked peer, or acquaintance (kappa = .98).
Analyses found that self-reported victimization was predictive of the number of peer provocations that youth reported happening during the week (r = .29 p < .001). The number of mean events reported during the week and self-reported victimization were also correlated with depression (r = .15, p = .048; r = .56, p < .001, respectively) and anxiety (r = .23, p = .004; r = .53, p < .001, respectively). Youth reported more transgressions being committed by friends (52%) and acquaintances (37%) than by enemies (12%). Self-reported victimization was not related to the portion of mean events that were committed by friends, enemies, or acquaintances, nor were these proportions significantly related to depression and anxiety. However, regression analyses using PROCESS (Hayes, 2017) found that the relation between victimization and depression was moderated by the portion of provocation events that were committed by an enemy. For youth who reported more provocations from enemies/disliked peers, victimization was more strongly related to depressive symptoms (b = .99, p < .001) than it was for youth for whom none of their provocateurs were described as enemies (b = .68, p <.001).
Discussion will focus on whether this pattern can be explained by how youth think about provocations and provocateurs or whether provocations from friends or acquaintances differ qualitatively from those enacted by enemies.

Authors

• Sunmi Seo, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author

• Kristina McDonald, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alison Farrell-Reeves, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephen Ungvary, SKIM Market Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenna Reardanz, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melanie Dirks, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author