The Relation Between Peer Victimization and Changes in Trauma Symptoms in Adolescents

Introduction: Adolescents experience high rates of peer victimization, which may be particularly detrimental given the increased importance of peers during this developmental period. Victimization is associated with negative outcomes, including greater externalizing and internalizing difficulties. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal research examining trauma symptomatology as an outcome of peer victimization, particularly with low-income, ethnic minority adolescents. This study addressed this gap in the literature by examining the relation between peer victimization and changes in trauma symptoms over time.

Method: Participants were 684 students enrolled in three urban, high-risk, low socioeconomic status middle schools in the southeastern United States. The sample was predominantly African American and 52% female. Participants were assessed at five time points between the fall of their sixth grade and the fall of their seventh grade school years. Data were collected every three months beginning in the winter of 2010 using computer-administered surveys of random samples of students at each school as part of a larger project. Students completed measures of their frequency of physical victimization and relational victimization within the past 30 days, and their symptoms of distress within the past six months.

Results: Growth curve analysis revealed linear changes in physical victimization and nonlinear changes in relational victimization. These models were expanded to examine the relations between growth trajectories of physical and relational victimization and changes in trauma symptoms. Initial levels of both forms of victimization were related to concurrent ratings of trauma during the fall of sixth grade, but not to subsequent changes in trauma symptoms. Changes in the frequency of victimization, represented by slope parameters within the growth model, predicted changes in trauma symptoms over the same time period.

Discussion: This study replicates findings from cross-sectional research that has shown concurrent relations between victimization and trauma symptoms in adolescents. It contributes to the literature by extending these findings to an underserved population of low SES, ethnic minority youth. Further, associations between growth trajectories of victimization and changes in trauma symptoms provide longitudinal evidence of this relation for both physical and relational victimization. This suggests that different forms of peer victimization may each potentially be traumatic for youth, underscoring the need for intervention efforts to address multiple types of victimization and to provide psychosocial support focused specifically on addressing trauma symptoms.