Impact of Physical and Relational Peer Victimization on Depressive Cognitions in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find longitudinal evidence of the effect of targeted peer victimization (TPV) on depressive cognitions as a function of victimization type and gender. Prospective relations of physical and relational peer victimization to positive and negative self-cognitions were examined in a 1-year, 2-wave longitudinal study. Self-reports of cognitions and both peer nomination and self-report measures of peer victimization experiences were obtained from 478 predominantly Caucasian children and young adolescents (Grades 3–6 at the beginning of the study) evenly split between genders. As a result, (a) peer victimization predicted increases in negative cognitions and decreases in positive cognitions over time; (b) relational victimization was more consistently related to changes in depressive cognitions than was physical victimization; (c) the prospective relation between victimization and depressive cognitions was stronger for boys than for girls; and (d) when the overlap between relational and physical TPV was statistically controlled, girls experienced more relational TPV than did boys, and boys experienced more physical TPV than did girls. Peer victimization, particularly relational TPV, has a significant impact on children's depressive cognitions. This relation seems particularly true for boys. Implications for future research, clinical work with victimized youth at risk for depression, and school policy to help both victims and bullies are discussed.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a gift from Patricia and Rodes Hart, by support from the Warren Family Foundation, by NICHD grant 1R01HD059891) to David A. Cole. We thank Judy Bell, Mickey Dyce, and Dawn Young for their support at various stages of this project. We also thank the children, teachers, and parents who participated in the study.

Notes

Note: TPV = targeted peer victimization; SR = self-report; PN = peer nominated, CATS = Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale; CTI = Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children; SPPC = Self-Perception Profile for Children; p < .05; p < .01. The SPPC is scaled in the opposite direction of the CATS and CTI. For r > .08, p < .05; when r > .11, p < .01; when r > .14, p < .001.

¹Score distributions on our peer nomination measures of physical and relational victimization were positively skewed (skewness = 2.1 for relational victimization and 2.4 for physical victimization), virtually an inevitable finding when measures are proportions reflecting characteristics with base rates less than 50%. Our analytic strategy, however, treated these measures as independent variables (for which distributional assumptions of normality are not critical).

²For two reasons, we have elected to report all significant results using an alpha of .05. One reason is that our various significant results reflect only subtle variations in what is virtually the same underlying pattern. This constitutes more of a replication across various cognitive measures than the emergence of qualitatively new and different results. Second, the results of peer victimization can be quite serious. Over the years, far more attention has been paid to perpetrators than to the victims of bullying. We prefer to run the risk of erring in the other direction. That said, we report exact p values so that the reader can easily implement family-wise alpha corrections and standardized beta weights as indices of effect size.

Note: CATS = Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale; TPV = targeted peer victimization; PN = peer nominated; SR = self-report; CTI = Cognitive Triad Inventory for Children; SPPC = Self-Perception Profile for Children.

Note: CATS = Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale; TPV = targeted peer victimization; PN = peer nominated; SR = self-report; SPPC = Self-Perception Profile for Children.