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Summary:
Childhood peer victimization is the experience of being a target of peers' aggressive behavior. Peer victimization is a common occurrence and has been concurrently and prospectively linked to significant psychological distress. This paper provides a review of the extant literature on the relationship between peer victimization and psychosocial adjustment in nonclinical and pediatric populations. Clinical applications of this literature, as well as directions for future study, are presented. Clin Pediatr. 2005;44:29-38
Introduction
Peer victimization among children and adolescents has been the focus of hundreds of studies over the last 3 decades. Defined as repeated exposure "to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons" (p. 413),1 large-scale community studies suggest that as many as 20% to 30% of children and adolescents are chronically victimized by peers.2,3 Whereas in the past, peer victimization was viewed as an inevitable part of childhood or rite of passage, attention to this phenomenon has increased as parents, school personnel, and health professionals have recognized the relationship of being victimized to a range of psychosocial adjustment problems.4 Sadly, plans for procedural and policy changes within schools are not widespread, resulting in the continued perpetuation of school bullying.
In early investigations of peer relations, victimization was thought to primarily occur through physical or verbal attacks such as hitting, pushing, cursing, or threatening.5,6 Not surprisingly, this research found that boys were victimized more frequently than girls. Such findings, however, contradicted common knowledge about the peer experiences of girls, as well as the nature of aggressive behavior among girls and boys. More recent research has revised this conceptualization to include forms of peer maltreatment such as shunning, ignoring, and spreading rumors.7-9 The shift in the definition of what constitutes a victimizing act has had significant implications on applied practice and empirical study. By broadening the definition of peer victimization to include gender-normative aggressive behaviors, a more balanced picture of boys' and girls' peer experiences has been captured.
Who Is a Victim? Children who are leased are frequently socially unassertive and submissive,10,11 often physically weak (if boys), and low in self-esteem.1 They may reward their attackers with tangible resources (e.g., money, toys) and signs of distress, and tend to be unlikely to retaliate against them,11 thus perpetuating their role. Some...