Long-term psychosocial consequences of peer victimization: from elementary to high school

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated that victims of peer victimization show reduced psychological adjustment, social adjustment, and physical well-being compared with nonvictims. However, little research has addressed whether this maladjustment continues over the long term. This study examined adjustment in 72 high school students who had participated in a peer-nomination procedure assessing peer victimization when in elementary school (5 to 8 years earlier). Thirty-five high school students who had been peer nominated as overtly and/or relationally peer victimized were compared with 37 peers who were not nominated as victimized in elementary school. High school students completed self-report measures of psychological adjustment, social adjustment, physical well-being, and current overt and relational victimization. In addition, a retrospective self-report measure of peer victimization in elementary school was administered. Results revealed that, although current self-reported peer victimization was negatively related to adjustment, elementary-school peer-nomination measures of victimization were unrelated to high-school adjustment. Further, current self-reports of remembered victimization in elementary school were associated with lowered adjustment. These results indicate that current and past perceived peer victimization is negatively related to adjustment, but past experience of peer-identified victimization has a more complex relation to current adjustment.