Poster #230 - Trajectories of Peer-Victimization from Early Childhood to Adolescence

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

Integrative Statement

Despite the overall decline of peer-victimization with age (Haltigan et al., 2014), some children are being victimized continuously over long periods of time and across different life contexts (Brendgen et al., 2017). However, the extent to which different developmental patterns of peer-victimization emerging during early childhood are sustained until adolescence is less understood. The aim of this study is to describe the developmental trajectories of peer-victimization from early childhood to adolescence, as well as the contextual- and individual-level factors associated with these trajectories.

Methods: In a Canadian population-based birth cohort, 2120 children were followed from 5 months until 17 years old with yearly or bi-yearly assessments. The current study included 1530 individuals for which at least two and three measures of peer-victimization were available between 3.5 and 6 years old (mother-reported peer-victimization) and between 6 and 17 years old (self-reported peer-victimization), respectively. Mother-reported peer-victimization was assessed with three questions about the frequency with which their child had been (1) made fun of, (2) hit or pushed, (3) called names by other children during the last 6 months (0=never, 1=sometimes, 2=often). Self-reported peer-victimization was assessed with 6 items measuring the frequency of physical (e.g. “pushed, hit or kicked me”), verbal (e.g. “called me names, insulted me”), and relational (e.g. “did not let me be part of his or her group“) victimization ( 0=never, 1=once or twice, 2=more often). A continuous score of peer-victimization (0=low victimization to 10=high victimization) was derived at each time point by averaging the individual item scores. Contextual and individual predictors were measured at 5 and 17 months. Group-based multi-trajectory modeling was used to identify clusters of individuals who follow similar trajectories of peer-victimization from age 3.5 to 17. This new method allowed us to jointly model the trajectories of multiple outcomes (peer-victimization as reported by mother and child) using semiparametric mixture models (Nagin et al., 2016). Multinomial logistic regression will be used to estimate the association between early contextual and individual predictors and the peer-victimization trajectories.

Results: Preliminary findings presented in Figure 1 indicated that a group of children followed chronic peer-victimization trajectories from early childhood to adolescence (group 6), for other children peer-victimization was limited to early or middle childhood (groups 2, 4 and 5) while the rest were exposed to low levels of peer-victimization during the entire period (groups 1 and 3). The association of various predictors such as familial (e.g. insufficient income, separated family, parental mental health), individual (e.g. early temperament, cognition, aggressive behavior) and educational (e.g. participation in non-parental early childhood education and care services) characteristics with membership in the different peer-victimization trajectory groups will be examined.

Conclusion: The preliminary trajectories identified in this study pointed towards an overall increase of peer-victimization during pre-school years followed by a gradual decrease thereafter. However, different patterns described the evolution of peer-victimization, with chronic peer-victimization from early childhood to adolescence being experienced by some children. Early manifestation of chronic peer-victimization could be a symptom of pre-existing familial and individual vulnerabilities.

Authors

• Sinziana Ioana Oncioiu, University of Bordeaux
  Presenting Author

• Massimiliano Orri, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marie Navarro, University of Bordeaux
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cedric Galera, University of Bordeaux
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marie-Claude Geoffroy, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michel Boivin, Laval University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mara Brendgen, University of Quebec at Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Richard Ernest Tremblay, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sylvana Côté, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author