Friendships Lost: The Social Consequences of Violent Victimization

ABSTRACT

Few studies have examined the impact of violent victimization on friendship networks. This study used 2 waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the effects of violent victimization on number of peer- and self-reported friendships. Guided by stigma theory (Goffman, 1963), fixed-effect regression models controlling for depression, delinquency, substance use, and school engagement were completed to predict changes in number of friends following victimization. Consistent with the theory, results indicate that experiencing violent victimization (e.g., jumped, stabbed, shot at) was associated with a decrease in number of friends. These effects were magnified for females and for individuals with a greater number of depressive symptoms. These results were consistent even when models were run separately for each individual type of victimization. Treatment and prevention implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescents
• depression
• friendship networks
• victimization
• violence

Acknowledgments

Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisel for assistance in the original design.

Funding

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by Grant P01HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Information on how to obtain the Add Health Data Files is available on the Add Health Web site (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. Research reported in this article was supported by the Penn State Population Research Institute, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health under award number R24HD041025. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Additional information

Funding

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by Grant P01HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Information on how to obtain the Add Health Data Files is available on the Add Health Web site (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. Research reported in this article was supported by the Penn State Population Research Institute, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health under award number R24HD041025. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.