Peer teasing experiences of fathers and their children: Intergenerational associations and transmission mechanisms

Abstract

Being the victim or perpetrator of peer teasing threatens children’s immediate and long-term well-being. Given that many individual and contextual risk factors for peer victimization are transmitted within families, we tested whether fathers’ childhood victimization experiences were directly or indirectly (via poor parenting and poor child adjustment) associated with their children’s increased risk for similar experiences. Generation two (G2) fathers (n = 130) who had been assessed since age 9 years participated in an intergenerational study with their 268 G3 children and the 163 G2 mothers of these children. Peer teasing ratings were collected annually from G1 mothers, fathers, and teachers across G2 ages 9–16 years, and from the same three informant types across the same ages for G3 children. Also assessed was G2 fathers’ poor parenting of G3 at ages 3–7 years and G3 poor adjustment (externalizing and internalizing behaviors, deviant peer association, low social competence) and body mass index (BMI) at ages 7–16 years. Models supported intergenerational stability in being teased that was partially mediated through G2 fathers’ poor parenting and G3 poor adjustment. A direct intergenerational path in being teased remained significant, and G3 BMI uniquely predicted being teased. Childhood peer victimization is perpetuated across generations. Prevention aimed at poor parenting, child poor adjustment, and peer victimization itself may disrupt intergenerational stability in these adverse experiences.

The social withdrawal and social anxiety feedback loop and the role of peer victimization and acceptance in the pathways

“…Preliminary validity information for this single-item measure of peer victimization comes from two studies. The first study reported that the teacher-report version of this item was significantly moderately correlated with maternal and paternal reports of a two-item victimization scale (Kerr, Gini, Own, & Capaldi, 2018). The second found that when children reported being teased in an autism diagnostic interview, 88.9% of parents also indicated that their child was victimized with the CBCL peer victimization item (Nowell, Brewton, & Goin-Kochel, 2014).…”

Role of Risk Taking and Inhibitory Control in Alcohol Use Among Maltreated Adolescents and Nonmaltreated Adolescents

“…We averaged the T1 and T2 indicators of risk taking and inhibitory control because (1) all of these indicators were significantly correlated over time; (2) this approach maximizes the available longitudinal data within a parsimonious model; and (3) combining scores across multiple assessments provides more reliable estimates of population–level data. This approach has been widely used in longitudinal studies (e.g., Haraden et al, 2017; Kerr et al, 2018). The significance of the hypothesized mediating path was examined using the bias-corrected bootstrap method based on 5000 samples (Mackinnon et al, 2004).…”

Intergenerational Transmission of Peer Aggression

“…Moreover, the peer aggression and transmission literature are two rather distinct fields with not very much overlap, which probably also contributes to a lack of recent studies on this topic. In fact, to the knowledge of the authors, only two studies have examined transmission of peer-related aggression but have used high-risk rather than population samples and arrived at different conclusions: Whereas fathers' peer bullying perpetration was transmitted to offspring (Farrington, 1993), no evidence was found for intergenerational transmission of fathers' peer teasing (Kerr et al, 2018). By studying this association in a population sample and not solely for fathers, the field gains a better understanding both of long-term correlates of peer aggression as well as on preconception predictors of behavioral development for offspring.…”