Peer relationships are essential during early adolescence when various psycho-social changes occur. More time is spent with peers during a phase wherein sensitivity to peer acceptance and rejection...Show morePeer relationships are essential during early adolescence when various psycho-social changes occur. More time is spent with peers during a phase wherein sensitivity to peer acceptance and rejection is heightened. Engaging in prosocial behavior is a way for adolescents to form positive peer relationships. However, peer victimization may negatively impact adolescents’ abilities to engage in such prosocial behaviors. This may be based on the degree of internalizing behaviors the adolescent engages in. This study aimed to understand whether there is an association between peer victimization and prosocial behavior two years later, as well as to understand whether internalizing behaviors mediate this relationship. This subproject of the Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID) used longitudinal data from 133 participants. Of these participants, there was a mean age of M = 11.26 years (SD = 0.73), with 54.1% being girls and 48.6% being boys. A mediation analysis investigated the relationship between peer victimization at ages 10-12 years and prosocial behaviors two years later and the role of internalizing behaviors. Results found that peer victimization did not predict prosocial behavior. However, peer victimization was associated with an increase in internalizing behaviors, and internalizing was associated with a decrease in prosocial behavior, respectively. Thus, experiencing peer victimization puts an adolescent at risk for internalizing behaviors later in time. Additionally, adolescents with higher internalizing behaviors may show reduced prosocial behaviors. This implies that peer victimization may have long-term consequences on psychosocial functioning within a non-clinical Dutch sample.Show less
Peer victimization can lead to depression, social anxiety, and suicide. Online peer victimization is an upcoming phenomenon. In this study, the relationship between the experience of online and...Show morePeer victimization can lead to depression, social anxiety, and suicide. Online peer victimization is an upcoming phenomenon. In this study, the relationship between the experience of online and offline peer victimization and learning from negative social feedback was investigated. It was expected that online and offline peer victimization would predict better negative social learning. This could be a possible pathway between peer victimization and depression and social anxiety. The Multidimensional Offline and Online Peer Victimization Scale (MOOPV) was used to measure the experience of online and offline peer victimization during the past six months. The Self profile task was used to measure negative social learning. Regression analyses were performed with 149 students aged between 18 and 29 (mean age = 20.41), but no significant effects were found. Therefore, it is possible that peer victimization is not a predictor of negative social learning. An alternative explanation for the fact that no effect was measured could be the few participants in this sample who have experienced offline or online peer victimization during the last six months before the study. Furthermore, the simplified way in which negative social learning was measured may have caused no effect was found. Exploratively, a weak negative correlation was found between whether someone had experienced offline peer victimization and how someone feels about themselves. In all cases, more research is needed on the path of online and offline peer victimization to depression and social anxiety to develop more effective treatment approaches.Show less
