Early Adolescent Internalizing Problems and Peer Victimizations: Perpetrator Race and Victim Racial Attitudes

• In Event: Parenting, Peer Victimization, and Youth Emotional Experience Predicting Adolescent Adjustment: Effects of Culture and Ethnicity

Abstract

Adolescence is a time when internalizing problems increase (Costello et al., 2003). Victimization by peers has been consistently linked with maladjustment such as depression and loneliness (e.g., Hanish & Guerra, 2002). However substantial variability exists in victim adjustment (Singh & Bussey, 2011). In this study, we investigated how perpetrator race, a highly visible and prominent feature, may impact victims’ internalizing problems and, furthermore, how victim attitudes towards the perpetrator’s race may moderate the impact. We examined these questions by using three types of victimization resulting from three forms of aggression: Overt (physical or verbal), social (indirect or relational), and sexual (harassment or violence).
The participants included 433 middle school students (55% female, Mage=12.91, 66% White) in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Participants reported their own and their perpetrator’s race (e.g., White, Black, Hispanic, Asian and Other), how comfortable they feel interacting with peers of specific races (i.e., White, Black, and Hispanic), the frequency and severity of overt, social, and sexual victimization, along with loneliness (5-items: α=.81; e.g., “I feel lonely”) and depression (7-items: α=.92; e.g., “I felt depressed”).
After controlling for participants’ gender, all three types of peer victimization (both frequency and severity) were significantly and positively associated with depression and loneliness in the regression models (βs > .16, ps < .01). On top of these associations, perpetrator race mattered: Hispanic perpetrator was associated with higher loneliness among overt victims (β = .34, p = .01); and Black perpetrator was associated with increased depression among sexual victims (β = .33, p = .02). In addition, victims’ attitudes towards perpetrator race along with victims’ own race seemed to moderate the association between perpetrator race and internalizing problems. Results suggest that it is important to study peer victimization among multi-ethnic relationships in understanding the development of internalizing problems among adolescents.

Authors

• Hongling Xie, Temple University
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Rosie, Temple University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jill Swirsky, Holy Family University
  Non-Presenting Author