Does the classroom context moderate the effects of internalizing problems and peer status on peer victimization?...

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Internalizing symptoms and peer status are critical factors in adolescent well-being.
• Understanding victimization risk requires examining individual and contextual influences.
• Peer victimization is a significant concern in secondary school settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the concurrent and prospective associations between internalizing symptoms and peer status with peer- and self-reported victimization.
• To examine whether classroom prevalence of internalizing symptoms/peer status and classroom size moderate these associations.
• To analyze longitudinal effects over a 5-month period in a secondary school population.

Main Methods:

• Two-wave multilevel regression analyses were performed on data from 2,641 Finnish secondary school students.
• Data were collected at the beginning (September 2022) and middle (January 2023) of the school year.
• Peer-reported and self-reported victimization, internalizing symptoms, and peer status were assessed.

Main Results:

• Concurrently, higher internalizing problems and lower peer status were linked to increased victimization, irrespective of classroom context.
• Longitudinally, internalizing problems and lower peer status predicted more self-reported victimization.
• Only lower peer status prospectively predicted higher peer-reported victimization; no classroom-level moderators were significant.

Conclusions:

• Internalizing symptoms and low peer status are consistent risk factors for adolescent victimization.
• Classroom contextual factors do not appear to buffer or exacerbate these individual-level risks.
• Findings highlight the importance of addressing individual psychological and social factors to mitigate peer victimization.