Shared and gender-specific links between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms: Insights from undirected and...

Despite established evidence of a mutual relationship between peer victimization and internalizing symptoms, gender-specific variations remain underexplored, hindering the development of tailored interventions. This study examines gender-specific symptom networks linking peer victimization and internalizing symptoms in 10,374 Chinese adolescents (47.9% female). Peer victimization (verbal, physical, relational, and cyber) and internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) were analyzed using undirected and Bayesian network models to identify core and bridging symptoms. In the undirected network, both genders shared important nodes, including "public mocking," "threats intimidation," and "often fearful," while "online harassment" was distinctive for females and "social isolated" for males. "Feel unloved" emerged as the key bridging node linking internalizing symptoms and peer victimization among females, whereas "fear of doing bad" served this bridging role among males. Directed acyclic graph from the Bayesian network indicated that internalizing symptoms and victimization symptoms formed a single top-down cluster among females, whereas these symptoms formed two parallel clusters among males. These findings underscore the importance of gender-specific interventions targeting core and bridging symptoms to disrupt the cycle of internalizing symptoms and peer victimization.