Victims Become Covert Aggressors: Gender Differences in the Mediating Effects of Rumination on Anger and Sadness

Abstract

This longitudinal study examined the link between peer victimization and relational aggression by testing the mediating roles of sadness and anger rumination, with attention to gender differences, among Chinese adolescents. Survey measures were administrated to 2,152 junior middle school students at two time points, one year apart. The results found that self-reported peer victimization (but not peer-nominated victimization) positively predicted relational aggression one year later, and this link was completely mediated by sadness and anger rumination. Specifically, perceived peer victimization exerted a positive influence on both sadness and anger rumination, thereby increasing adolescents’ tendency to exhibit relational aggression one year later. Furthermore, victimized boys’ elevated relational aggression was predominantly accounted for by their high sadness rumination, whereas victimized girls’ elevated relational aggression was mainly due to their great anger rumination. Such a gender-difference suggests that interventions to reduce adolescents’ externalizing problems may be most effective when tailored to each gender specifically.

Keywords:

• Peer victimization
• relational aggression
• sadness rumination
• anger rumination
• Chinese adolescents

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Benjamin·Farrar at Department of Psychology in University of Cambridge for his English language assistance.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, YYZ, upon reasonable request

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Research Program Funds of the Collaborative Innovation Center Assessment toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University under Grant [number 2020-05-0033-BZPK01], the Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Project of Ministry of Education under Grant [number 19YJA190011] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant [number 2020TS009].

Notes on contributors

Caina Li

Caina Li is a professor in School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, China. Her research interests are in adolescents’ personality, bullying and parenting.

Qingling Zhao

Qingling Zhao is a doctoral candidate in School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, China. Her research interests are peer relationships and adolescent development.

Wenjie Dai

Wenjie Dai is a teacher in Tianjin Eco-city Nankai Primary School, Tianjin, China. Her research interests are adolescents’ victimization and aggression.

Yunyun Zhang

Yunyun Zhang is a professor in Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. Her research interests are in adolescents’ interpersonal relationships and bullying.