Poster #84 - The Bidirectional Relationship of Youth’s Symptoms of Psychopathology and Peer Victimization

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Substantial research suggests that experiencing peer victimization has adverse short- and long-term consequences in early adolescence, including links with decreases in academic performance and increases in symptoms of psychopathology. For example, peer victimization in middle childhood predicted increasing internalizing symptoms (Schwartz et al., 2015) as well as increasing externalizing symptoms during adolescence (Vaillancourt et al., 2013). However, much less work has focused on the potential bidirectional relationship or reverse pathways of psychopathology and peer victimization (i.e. whether greater psychopathology symptoms may also predict future peer victimization). This study aimed to examine the potential bidirectional relationships between internalizing, externalizing, and ADHD psychopathology symptoms and peer victimization across one year in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of twins in early adolescence. The sample included 414 pairs of twins that were measured at two time points, at the approximate ages of 10 and 11 from the longitudinal Arizona Twin Project (N=818, 55.9% females, 28.5% Hispanic; Lemery-Chalfant et al., 2019). Parent report on the Health and Behavior Questionnaire (Armstrong, 2003), and child report on the Berkeley Puppet Interview (Measelle et al., 1998) were used to measure children’s internalizing, externalizing, and ADHD psychopathology. Reliability was strong across all psychopathology measures at both time points (alphas > .78). Peer victimization was collected through parent report using the peer relations scale in the Health and Behavior Questionnaire. This scale was also found to have strong reliability at both time points (alphas > .77). Multilevel regression analyses to account for family nesting were conducted in SPSS 27.0, accounting for the covariates of family socioeconomic status, sex, and race. Peer victimization at age 10 was associated with both parent report of internalizing and child report of externalizing at age 11 when controlling for psychopathology at age 10 (Table 1). When examining potential bidirectional pathways, parent report of externalizing and child report of internalizing at age 10 predicted peer victimization at age 11 in expected directions when controlling for peer victimization at age 10 (Table 2). No significant results were found for ADHD in either direction. Results support a bidirectional relation between peer victimization and symptoms of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, but not ADHD, in early adolescence. This reciprocal relationship shows the importance of focusing on both peer relationships as well as internalizing and externalizing psychopathology symptoms in early adolescence to improve outcomes for children during adolescence. These findings can help us understand the importance of addressing and preventing children’s symptoms of psychopathology in prevention programs targeted at reducing bullying in school.

Authors

• Amanda Sather, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Leah D Doane, Arizona State University

• Mary Davis, Arizona State University

• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University