2-079 - Victimization Consequences for Youth’s Psychological and School Adjustment: Insights From Individual-Contextual Approaches

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is growing recognition that the consequences of victimization for children’s adjustment are partly dependent on the context (e.g., Bellmore et al., 2004; Schacter & Juvonen, 2015). The variation of adjustment across contexts can be understand by a match (or mismatch) between persons and their environment (person-group dissimilarity model; Wright et al., 1986). This symposium brings together four international studies (the Netherlands, US, Canada) using state-of-the-art Multilevel Moderation Modeling and Social Network Analysis to understand how the environment from early/middle childhood to early adolescence impacts children’s adjustment.

The first study investigates victimization experiences during and after the implementation of an anti-bullying intervention, demonstrating that non-victimized youth benefited from the intervention but consequences for the adjustment of remaining or new victims were detrimental. The second study investigates the buffering function of school-level prosocial norms for early adolescent victims, and suggests that being in a more prosocial school is especially protective for victims without friends. The third study demonstrates how a positive classroom climate protects at-risk children in early/middle childhood with elevated level of internalizing problems from relational victimization. The fourth study considers interactions between friendships and the classroom context, examining how risk for victimization increases among youth with victimized friends, especially when they share multiple classes with such friends.

Together, by recognizing the contextual specificity of peer interactions during childhood and adolescence, these studies highlight the ways that the broader school and social context of victimization can strengthen or weaken its negative effects.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chairs

• Gijs Huitsing, University of Groningen

• Hannah L. Schacter, University of California, Los Angeles

Individual Presentations

• The Development of Children’s Adjustment During the KiVa Anti-Bullying Intervention: A Two-Year Individual X Environment Study - Presenting Author: Gijs Huitsing, University of Groningen; Gerine M.A. Lodder, University of Groningen; Rene Veenstra, University of Groningen

• You’ve got a Friend(ly School): Compensatory Effects of Friends and Prosocial School Contexts on Victim Adjustment - Presenting Author: Hannah L. Schacter, University of California, Los Angeles; Jaana Juvonen, University of California, Los Angeles

• Does Classroom Climate Buffer the Bond between Peer Victimization and Internalizing Problems? - Presenting Author: Saira John, University of Alberta; Kenda N. Butler, University of Alberta; Brenna Zatto, University of Alberta; Wendy L. G. Hoglund, University of Alberta

• Shared Course-Taking, Friendship, and Victimization in Middle School: An Exploratory Study - Presenting Author: Leslie Echols, Missouri State University; Sandra Graham, UCLA