Peer Victimization among Black Preschoolers: Roles of Emotion Knowledge, Teacher-Child Relationships, and Gender

Abstract

This study examined whether varying dimensions of teacher-child relationship quality and gender moderated associations between knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations and peer victimization among Black preschoolers (60 boys, 54 girls) who ranged in age from 35 to 65 months. Fifty-one children had a Black teacher, 46 had a White teacher, and 17 had a Latine teacher. All teachers were female. Knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations was assessed directly in the fall. Lead teachers reported on teacher-child relationship quality between September and December. A second teacher completed peer victimization ratings in the spring of the following year. When teacher-child closeness was high, there was a positive association between knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations and physical victimization, but a negative association emerged when teacher-child closeness was low. In accord with the victim schema model that undergirded this study, knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations was negatively related to physical victimization for children who experienced high teacher-child conflict and dependency. Black teachers perceived more relational victimization. Our findings highlight the need for further examination of peer victimization among young Black children and suggest that identifying the individual and ecological correlates of peer victimization should be a priority for school psychologists working in early educational contexts.

Keywords:

• Black preschoolers
• peer victimization
• knowledge of negative emotion-eliciting situations
• teacher-child relationships
• victim schema model

Acknowledgment

We thank the participants and the graduate and undergraduate research assistants for their help with data collection and coding.

Consent to participate

Parents or legal guardians of participating children provided written consent for their children to participate in the study. Additionally, participating children provided their own consent to participate in the study. Because of their ages, children’s consent responses were recorded on the consent form by one of the researchers.

Consent to publish

During the informed consent process, parents of participants consented to the submission of the data reported in this paper to be submitted for publication.

Conflicts of interest/competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or nonfinancial interests to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or nonfinancial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The dataset generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available for reasons of confidentiality, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.