Peer Victimization

Prevalence

Estimates of the prevalence of peer victimization have varied considerably. Studies assessing whether students have been victimized during the current semester or school year yield prevalence rates between 30% and 60%. The more commonly used criterion for classifying children as frequent victims (weekly or more) provides estimates in the range of 6–15%. Rates of peer victimization have been found to be comparable across countries. Therefore, victimization is a problem that most students experience at least at some point, and frequent victimization is experienced by a substantial minority.

Psychological Correlates

A substantial amount of research has studied the psychological and other individual-level correlates of peer victimization. This research demonstrates that children who are victimized by their peers tend to be physically weak, have low self-concept, exhibit low levels of prosocial and socially skilled behaviors, suffer internalizing problems (e.g., depression, anxiety), and experience some externalizing problems (hyperactivity, delinquency, but not especially high or low levels of aggression). There also exists a smaller body of longitudinal studies that inform whether these correlates serve as antecedents (i.e., risk or protective factors) or consequences (probabilistic outcomes) of peer victimization. As might be expected, physical weakness serves primarily as an antecedent (i.e., risk factor) for peer victimization. Notably, other physical characteristics such as being short, obese, or wearing glasses are not consistently related to victimization. Thus, physical weakness is the only physical characteristic that clearly places children at risk of victimization. Prosocial and socially skilled behaviors (e.g., assertiveness, effective conflict management) predict lower levels of victimization over time. Thus, low levels or the absence of these behaviors can be considered a risk factor for peer victimization. The associations of peer victimization with self-concept, internalizing problems, and certain externalizing problems are more complex. Each of these is a consequence of being victimized by peers, such that victimization leads to diminished self-concept, increases in internalizing problems, and greater externalizing problems (through increasing emotional dysregulation and hostile attributions about peers). However, low self-concept and internalizing problems also predict increases in peer victimization over time, presumably because children with these problems are viewed as easy targets by aggressors in that they are less likely to defend themselves and more likely to reward aggressors through signs of suffering or relinquishing resources. Children with externalizing problems, especially hyperactivity, are likely to annoy or otherwise provoke aggressors. Thus, there exists a cycle in which these factors place children at risk for [Page 1611]victimization, and the victimization leads to further problems in these areas. These cyclical relations may explain why peer victimization is highly stable across time and contexts.

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