Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： There is a close relationship between peer victimization and internalizing problems in children and adolescents. According to the interpersonal risk model, negative interpersonal experiences, such as peer victimization, are important stressors, and they leave children with their basic need for belonging unsatisfied and so lead to a series of problem behaviors. The symptom-driven model emphasizes that internalizing problems leaves individuals vulnerable to attack, so internalizing problems are risk factors for predicting peer victimization. The interaction model shows that childhood and adolescence are in high-incidence periods for peer victimization and internalizing problems, and internalizing problems may lead to negative peer reaction (such as peer victimization and peer rejection), which in turn induces more internalizing problems, and vice versa. Many studies have explored the longitudinal relationship between peer victimization and internalizing problems, but the results have been mixed. This meta-analysis was conducted to explore the strength and moderators of the longitudinal relationship between these two variables. Through literature retrieval, 99 independent effect sizes were selected, covering a total of 70, 598 participants, which met the inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. After coding the data, we analyzed the main effect and moderating effect using Comprehensive Meta-analysis Version 2.0. Heterogeneity testing indicated that the random effects model was suitable for the meta-analysis. Based on the funnel plot and Egger’s test of regression to the intercept, no significant publication bias was found in the included studies. The main effect test indicated significant prospective pathways from peer victimization to internalizing problems (β = 0.097, 95% CI = [0.083, 0.110]) and from internalizing problems to peer victimization (β = 0.119, 95% CI = [0.104, 0.135]), which suggests that peer victimization and internalizing problems are related in a reciprocal manner. Moderation analysis revealed that the predictive effect of peer victimization on internalizing problems was moderated by age and also by the type of peer victimization. The predictive effect of internalizing problems on peer victimization was moderated by measurement interval, type of peer victimization, method of assessment, and type of internalizing problems. However, whether the participants lived in Chinese or Western cultures did not moderate the relationships observed. The results supported the interaction model, which suggested that peer victimization and internalizing problems are mutually influencing factors. Future research and intervention program design should look for protective factors outside the individual system to help children and adolescents break the vicious circle between these two variables. Moreover, particular attention should be given to the effects of age, type of peer victimization, assessment method, measurement interval, and type of internalizing problems on the relationship between peer victimization and internalizing problems.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2022-02-08
Abstract：
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Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Aggressive behavior plays an important role in the social, emotional and psychological adjustment of children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with aggressive behavior are prone to violate social moral norms, and even commit crimes in serious cases. It is noted that peer victimization is an important predictor of aggressive behavior. Peer victimization refers to that individuals have experienced attacks by peers, such as physical and verbal victimization, attacks on property and social manipulation. Children and adolescents who have been victimized by peers will characterize the attacker as hostility, which will be generalized to the whole peer group, thus showing more aggressive behavior in future interpersonal communication. Several previous studies have examined the relationship between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. However, due to differences in research design and inconsistent results, there is still some uncertainty about the relationship between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents, and the moderating effect on this relationship is not fully clear. Therefore, the present study employed a three-level meta-analysis to quantitatively synthesize the results of original literatures to obtain reliable estimates of effect sizes and examined a range of moderators (sample, publication, study design, outcome, and assessment characteristics). Through the retrieval of articles published before October 2020, the current meta-analysis identified 40 studies, with 25,605 participants (range of mean age: 6 ~ 19 years) and 333 independent effect sizes. The funnel plot and Egger's test results suggested an absence of publication bias in current meta-analysis. Analysis revealed a significant positive association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents (r = 0.295, p < 0.001), implying that children and adolescents showed a higher level of aggressive behavior when they experienced higher level of peer victimization. In addition, the present study found a significant moderating effect of peer victimization variable. Compared with physical victimization (r = 0.219, p = 0.005), the association between relational victimization (r = 0.298, p = 0.005) and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was stronger. Moreover, the overall association was influenced by region. Aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was more strongly associated with peer victimization in Asia (r = 0.351, p = 0.006) than in South America (r = 0.149, p = 0.006). Study design was also a significant moderator. The association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was smaller in longitudinal (r = 0.234, p = 0.014) than in cross-sectional studies (r = 0.339, p = 0.014). Finally, the moderator analyses also showed that the informant of peer victimization was a significant moderator. The strength of the association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was significantly stronger when peer victimization was reported by teachers (r = 0.476, p = 0.023) than by peers (r = 0.290, p = 0.023). In addition, the present study found that the overall association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents did not differ in strength across gender, age, publication, variable and informant of aggressive behavior. Moreover, to eliminate the multicollinearity between moderators, the current study built a multivariate model by including all significant moderators that had been identified in the bivariate models. The result indicated that at least one of the regression coefficients of moderators significantly deviates from zero (F (12, 316) = 3.973, p < 0.001). In sum, the results of the current meta-analysis contribute to a better understanding of the association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. These results also provide a reference for future empirical studies on explaining aggressive behavior in children and adolescents.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2021-11-06
Abstract： Aggressive behavior plays an important role in social, emotional and psychological adjustment of children and adolescents. It is noted that peer victimization is an important predictor of aggressive behavior. Although several previous studies have examined the relationship between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents, the moderating effect on this relationship is not fully clear. Therefore, the present study employed a three-level meta-analysis to obtain reliable estimates of effect sizes and examined a range of moderators. Through the retrieval of articles published before October 2020, the current meta-analysis identified 40 studies, with 25605 participants and 333 independent effect sizes. Analysis revealed a significant positive association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. In addition, the present study found a significant moderating effect of peer victimization variable. Compared with physical victimization, the association between relational victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was stronger. Moreover, the overall association was influenced by region. Aggressive behavior was more strongly associated with peer victimization in Asia than in South America. Study design was also a significant moderator. The association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was smaller in longitudinal than in cross-sectional studies. Finally, the moderator analyses also showed that the informant of peer victimization was a significant moderator. The strength of the association between peer victimization and aggressive behavior in children and adolescents was significantly stronger when peer victimization was reported by teachers than by peers. The results of the current meta-analysis indicated that people should pay attention to the influence of peer victimization in children and adolescents when preventing and controlling their aggressive behavior.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2022-12-18
Abstract： "Peer victimization (PV) is widespread among children and adolescents in China. Extant research indicated that children of adverse backgrounds, such as rural-to-urban migrant children and left-behind children, are more vulnerable to PV. Relatively few longitudinal studies, however, have examined how PV changes over time and whether children exposed to adversity are consistently victimized over time. Furthermore, PV can lead to serious psychological problems. Consistent with interpersonal risk and social information processing models, the deleterious effects of PV on externalizing problems and depressive symptoms are well-documented in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. However, previous studies mainly examined the separate effects of the initial level and change rates of PV on externalizing problems and depressive symptoms and ignored possible synergistic effects of the initial level and change rates of PV. Three competing models—the additive, stress-amplification, and stress-sensitization models—can explain how the synergistic effects of the initial level and change rates contribute to externalizing problems and depressive symptoms. Thus, the present study used a longitudinal design to explore changing trajectories of PV and investigated whether the PV trajectories differed across migrant status. This study further examined how the initial level and change rates of PV synergistically predicted externalizing problems and depressive symptoms among children and adolescents at two years later. This study employed a 4-wave longitudinal design spanning two years. Participants included 1,580 students from three provinces in China who were recruited through multiple schools including elementary (43.2%), middle (33.1%) and high (23.7%) schools. The mean age of participants at the baseline was 12.37 years (SD = 2.52, range = 9 to 19 years old; 54.9% boys).All measures in this study were based on participants’ self-report. At baseline, participants completed demographic information, including gender, grade, migrant status and subjective socioeconomic status. Multidimensional PV Scale was used to measure PV at waves 1 to 3. At baseline and wave 4, Child Behavior Checklist and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were used to measure externalizing problems and depressive symptoms, respectively. All analyses were conducted using Mplus 8.0. The analyses were conducted in three steps. First, the unconditional latent growth model was used to estimate individual change in PV over time. Second, multi-group latent growth models were used to examine whether the initial level, change rates and the correlation between initial level and change rates of PV differed across migrant status. Finally, conditional latent growth models with latent variable interactions (between initial level and change rates) were used to examine how the initial level and change rates across wave 1 to wave 3 jointly predict externalizing problems and depressive symptoms at wave 4. First, unconditional latent growth modeling revealed a significant linear decline in PV over the three time points, and that individuals with higher initial levels of PV showed a faster decline; Second, multi-group latent growth model revealed significant differences in the trajectory of PV across migrant status. Specifically, compared to urban children, rural-to-urban migrant children, left-behind children and rural children had significantly higher initial levels of PV. Moreover, rural-to-urban migrant children and left-behind children exhibited a steep decline in PV; Third, conditional latent growth model with latent variable interactions showed that the interaction between the initial level and change rates of PV significantly predicted depressive symptoms and externalizing problems two years later, after controlling for demographics and depressive symptoms and externalizing problems at baseline. Supported by stress-sensitization model, individuals who were exposed to higher initial levels showed more depressive symptoms even when they exhibited a steeper decline in PV. But individuals exposed to lower initial levels would require more severe stress to trigger stronger stress reactivity (in our case, reflected as more depressive symptoms) at the slower rate of PV. Supported by stress-amplification model, individuals with higher initial levels of PV would have greater externalizing problems when experienced a slower change rate of PV. In contrast, individuals with lower initial levels would have fewer externalizing problems even when experienced a slower rate of PV. There are three major methodological and conceptual contribution of the present study: (1) we examined three key components— the initial level, change rates and the correlation between initial level and change rates of PV —to elaborate changing trends in PV over time and distinct victimization trajectories across children of different migrant status. These findings contribute to more comprehensive understanding of PV from developmental perspectives and precise detection and intervention aimed at supporting high-risk children and adolescents; (2) The analysis examining the interaction between initial level and change rates of PV adds novelty to extant literature and provides nuanced insights into synergistic effect that the initial level and change rates of PV affect problem behavior in an synergistic (rather than isolated) manner; (3) This study revealed that the initial level and change rates of PV play a unique role in depressive symptoms (risk sensitivity) and externalizing problems (risk enhancement). This highlights that the synergistic effect of initial level and change rates of PV may have significant implications for developmental science on adolescence health.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2020-08-07
Abstract： Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health problems during adolescence. Research has indicated that distal stress and proximal stress as well as their interaction are important predictors of adolescent depressive symptoms. There are two different hypotheses — cumulative stress hypothesis and match-mismatch hypothesis — to understand the interaction between distal stress and proximal stress. It has been suggested that an individual’s genetic susceptibility may determine which of these two hypotheses is relevant, but very little empirical research has considered the impact of genetic predisposition on these issues. Furthermore, recent researchers have paid attention to the cumulative genetic score (CGS) of multiple loci rather than to single polymorphism. The present study was designed to extend prior research by exploring whether the interaction effects of distal maternal negative parenting and proximal peer victimization were consistent with the cumulative stress hypothesis or the match-mismatch hypothesis, for adolescents who carried higher or lower CGS of FKBP5 gene. In this study, 970 adolescents (48.8% male) were followed from Grade 6 to Grade 9. At T1 (Mage = 12.31 years, SD = 0.47), adolescent depressive symptoms were assessed using Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Mothers reported their negative parenting via the Chinese version of Child-Rearing Practices Report (CRPR). At T2 (Mage = 15.32 years, SD = 0.47), saliva samples of adolescents were collected and genotyped for three FKBP5 gene polymorphisms. Peer victimization and depressive symptoms were tested using Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS) and CDI, respectively. A series of hierarchical regressions and internal replication analyses were conducted to test the three-way interaction among maternal negative parenting, peer victimization and CGS of FKBP5 on depressive symptoms, separately for male and female adolescents. The results showed that, after T1 depressive symptoms were controlled for, maternal negative parenting, peer victimization and CGS had a significant three-way interaction on male adolescent depressive symptoms at T2. Specifically, among male adolescents who had higher CGS, maternal negative parenting negatively predicted depressive symptoms in the context of higher peer victimization, which fitted better with the match-mismatch hypothesis. The interaction between negative parenting and peer victimization was not significant among males with lower CGS, but showed a cumulative stress trend.The three-way interaction was not observed among females. By examining the interaction effect of maternal negative parenting, peer victimization and CGS on depressive symptoms, the present study highlights the important role of individuals’ genetic susceptibility in understanding the distal and proximal stress interactions during adolescence. This underscores the complex environmental and multiple loci underpinnings of depressive symptoms and lends some support for both the cumulative stress and match-mismatch hypotheses on the etiology of depressive symptoms.
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