Boys’ and girls’ peer victimization trajectories and associated adjustment outcomes in elementary school

• In Event: 2-145 - Consequences of bullying and peer victimization

Integrative Statement

Research suggests that children experience differential rates of peer victimization in early elementary school with chronic victimization predictive of the most serious adjustment difficulties (e.g. Kochenderfer-Ladd & Wardrop, 2001). Scant research, however, exists showing multiple, longitudinal victimization patterns during the early school years, as most studies focus on physical victimization or on composites of victimization types (e.g., physical, verbal, relational) which may oversimplify children’s victimization over time (e.g., Barker et al., 2008). Moreover, boys and girls tend to experience differential rates and forms of victimization (Carbone-Lopez, Esbensen, & Brick, 2010). Thus, this study identified trajectories separately by both victimization type and sex, and then investigated the associations between the emergent trajectories and several known correlates of chronic victimization, including internalizing problems, school safety concern, and poor academic outcomes.
Data were gathered on 230 children (105 girls; 42% Latino) as they progressed from 1st to 4th grade. Specifically, teacher-and-child reports were collected in the fall and spring of each year regarding the frequency of children’s experiences of physical, verbal, and relational victimization using a 4-point scale ranging from “Never” to “A lot”. Children also self-reported internalizing feelings including loneliness and anxiety and perception of school safety (items from: Achenbach, 1991; Cassidy & Asher, 1992; Ladd & Profilet, 1996). Teachers rated children’s math, reading, language, and spelling skills, as well as homework skills on a five-point scale ranging from “far below grade level”, “to “far above grade level”. All scales evidenced adequate reliability: alphas ranged from .71 to .90.
Latent growth mixture modeling (LGMM; Nagin, 1999) was used to identify developmental trajectories for each type of victimization, and by sex. Results suggests that children experience wide variability in victimization type over time, and differential patterns of victimization by sex (see Tables 1 and 2). For example, physical victimization was more frequent and complex (i.e., four trajectories: low, low increasing, moderate chronic, and moderate/decreasing) for boys than for girls (only 3% of girls experienced physical victimization). Conversely, relational victimization increased over time for about 70% of girls, while 93% boys experienced some form of decreasing relational victimization, with only 7% belonging to an increasing relational victimization trajectory group.
One-way ANCOVA’s compared children’s mean fourth-grade adjustment for each type of victimization, by sex (controlling for first-grade levels of adjustment). Overall, boys’ physical and verbal victimization trajectories were significantly associated with negative outcomes, while relational victimization trajectories were significantly problematic for girls’ adjustment. However, post hoc comparisons of mean differences revealed nuances by trajectory membership. For example, boys who reported low initial verbal victimization, with increasing victimization over time, felt significantly less safe at school (M= 1.92, SD =.32) than boys who rarely experienced victimization (M= 3.16, SD = .13) or boys who experienced moderate, and then decreasing victimization over time (M= 3.04, SD = .28). Girls who experienced an increasing trajectory of relational victimization, reported more empathy for their peers (M= 3.92, SD = .17) than girls who experienced moderate chronic victimization and moderate/decreasing victimization (Ms= 3.14, 3.13; SDs =.19, .20, respectively).

Authors

• Laura K Clary, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  Presenting Author

• Becky Kochenderfer-Ladd, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author