A large body of literature has clearly shown that students who experience peer victimization (also commonly known as bullying) also exhibit a host of psychological, social, physical, and educational problems. Surprisingly, however, little research has been conducted regarding what students should do when they get picked on (i.e., what coping strategies work best). In addition, virtually no work has considered the extent to which social environments, such as friendship groups or social status within a school, may be associated with whether a student chooses a particular strategy or whether or not a particular strategy works. The purpose of this study is to identify key factors of students' peer groups that can be targeted to ameliorate the negative consequences of daily peer victimization. The investigators propose inquiry into two specific areas: (a) Do social environments predict sixth-grade students' coping responses? and (b) How do coping strategies and social environments interact to predict well-being in the face of daily peer victimization experiences? The planned study will utilize daily-report methodology over 2 weeks to assess the social environmental factors associated with peer victimization experiences, effective coping responses, and current well-being.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has identified bullying as a serious health concern for U.S. adolescents, making the study of peer victimization, coping, and contextual factors highly relevant for middle-school students. In recent years, educators, parents, and others who work with youth have become more aware of bullying and interested in what they can do to help lessen the occurrence or negative effects of bullying. Sixth grade, the transitional year to middle school, appears to be the time when exposure to peer victimization peaks. At the same time, young adolescents may not have a coping strategy repertoire to easily deflect these negative peer encounters. Teachers, schools, and parents need to be better informed about the nuances of these complex social interactions in order to minimize their negative impacts. The proposed methodology will allow for a rich examination of social contextual factors that may influence victims' coping responses. In other words, there may not be a one-size-fits-all set of responses that work for all youth. Instead, certain strategies might work better in some situations and for some youth than others. The findings from the study will bridge and expand both the peer victimization and coping literatures by incorporating ecologically valid daily reports to understand responses and adjustment to specific victimization experiences. Because this work is to be conducted in three different urban communities within Wisconsin, California, and Oregon with an ethnically diverse sample of students from African American, Asian American, Latino, and Caucasian backgrounds, it lays the groundwork for determining promising new directions for cost-effective peer victimization interventions that are relevant for helping a broad spectrum of U.S. youth in the current changing ethnic landscape.
