Moving Against & Away from the World: The Adolescent Legacy of Peer Victimization

Nicki Crick initiated a generative line of theory and research aimed at exploring the implications of exposure to overt and relational aggression for youth development. The present study aimed to continue and expand this research by examining whether early (second grade) and increasing (second–sixth grade) levels of victimization during elementary school contributed to youths’ tendencies to move against, away from, or toward the world of peers following the transition to middle school. Youth (M age in second grade = 7.96 years, SD = 0.35; 298 goals 338 girls, boys) reported on their exposure to victimization and their social (performance-approach, performance-avoidance, or mastery). Teachers reported on youths’ exposure to victimization and their engagement in antisocial, socially helpless, and prosocial behavior. 

Latent growth curve analyses revealed that early and increasing levels of both overt and relational victimization uniquely contributed to multifinality in adverse developmental outcomes, predicting all three social orientations (high conflictual engagement, high disengagement, and low positive engagement). The pattern of effects was robust across sex and after adjusting for youths’ early social motivation. These findings confirm that both forms of victimization leave an enduring legacy on youths’ social health in adolescence. Given that profiles of moving against and away from the world can contribute to subsequent psychopathology, understanding and preventing this legacy is pivotal for developing effective intervention programs aimed at minimizing the effects of peer adversity.

Although the study of peer relationships and their effects on psychopathology became popularized in the 1980s, early attention was directed toward the construct of peer rejection (Asher & Coie, 1990). As the adverse consequences of peer rejection became clear, a burgeoning interest emerged in identifying specific behaviors through which negative attitudes such as rejection are conveyed to peers. With these efforts arose a heightened concern about bullying and victimization. Given the predominant focus of the time on physical aggression among peers, victimization typically was conceptualized in terms of acts of overt aggression as reflected in hitting, threats of violence, and the like. However, pioneering work by Nicki Crick and colleagues (Crick & Bigbee, 1998; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995, 1996; Crick & Nelson, 2002) spearheaded an innovative line of research aimed at uncovering the nature and consequences of relational aggression/victimization, as reflected in acts aimed at threatening dyadic relationships (e.g., social manipulation) or damaging one’s social standing (e.g., exclusion or rumor spreading).

Two decades later, solid evidence documents the adverse effects of victimization, implicating it as a potentially traumatic stressor that warrants significant research and practical attention (Graham, 2006). Moreover, research documents multifinality of outcomes (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996), reflected in between-individual heterogeneity in the consequences of victimization. Yet many of these efforts involve either concurrent or short-term longitudinal studies, leaving open the question of whether victimization constitutes a long-term risk. Moreover, most research fails to distinguish the static effects of victimization from its dynamic effects over time and across developmental transitions. This study examined whether early (second grade) and dynamic (trajectories across second–sixth grades) indicators of victimization uniquely predict risky outcomes in adolescence (sixth grade). In particular, consistent with prior evidence of multifinality in the outcomes of victimization, we sought to understand the emergence of three social orientations that represent risk or protective factors for psychopathology (Caspi, Elder, & Bem, 1987, 1988): moving against the world (conflictual engagement), moving away from the world (disengagement), and moving toward the world (positive engagement). We also examined whether exposure to victimization contributes to these outcomes beyond early individual differences in children’s social motivation.

Victimization and Moving Against the World

Moving against the world was conceptualized as aggressive (e.g., fighting or cruelty) and antisocial (e.g., disobedience or lying) acts that threaten others and defy accepted social norms. Some peer-victimized children may attribute maltreatment to undesirable characteristics of their peers (Perren, Ettekal, & Ladd, 2013; Schwartz et al., 1998; Yeung & Leadbeater, 2007), thereby developing negative peer perceptions (e.g., a sense of mistrust, hostility, or injustice) and feelings of anger (Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004; Salmivalli, Karhunen, & Lagerspetz, 1996; Troop-Gordon & Ladd, 2005). Being victimized also may instill a defensive stance in children, prompting aggressive efforts to retaliate or reattain their social status. Over time, negative peer perceptions, anger, and aggressive tendencies may become consolidated into a hostile attitude toward the world and generalized antisocial behavior...

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By:  Karen D. Rudolph,^A Wendy Troop-Gordon,^B Jennifer D. Monti,^A And Michelle E. Miernicki^a

^aUniversity of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign

^bNorth Dakota State University

Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Karen D. Rudolph, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820; Email: ude.sionilli@hplodurk.

   

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