Peer Victimization: an Integrative Review and Cross-National Test of a Tripartite Model

Abstract

School victimization issues remain largely unresolved due to over-reliance on unidimensional conceptions of victimization and data from a few developed OECD countries. Thus, support for cross-national generalizability over multiple victimization components (relational, verbal, and physical) is weak. Our substantive–methodological synergy tests the cross-national generalizability of a three-component model (594,196 fifteen-year-olds; nationally -representative samples from 77 countries) compared to competing (unidimensional and two-component) victimization models. We demonstrate the superior explanatory power of the three-component model—goodness-of-fit, component differentiation, and discriminant validity of the three components concerning gender differences, paradoxical anti-bullying attitudes (the Pro-Bully Paradox) whereby victims are more supportive of bullies than of other victims, and multiple indicators of well-being. For example, gender differences varied significantly across the three components, and all 13 well-being indicators were more strongly related to verbal and particularly relational victimization than physical victimization. Collapsing the three components into one or two components undermined discriminant validity. Cross-nationally, systematic differences emerged across the three victimization components regarding country-level means, gender differences, national development, and cultural values. These findings across countries support a tripartite model in which the three components of victimization—relational, verbal, and physical—relate differently to key outcomes. Thus, these findings advance victimization theory and have implications for policy, practice, and intervention. We also discuss directions for further research: the need for simultaneous evaluation of multiple, parallel components of victimization and bullying, theoretical definitions of bullying and victimization and their implications for measurement, conceptual bases of global victimization indices, cyberbullying, anti-bullying policies, and capitalizing on anti-bullying attitudes.

Cluster randomized control trial to reduce peer victimization: An autonomy-supportive teaching intervention changes the classroom ethos to support defending bystanders.

“…Second, we suggest that greater AST contributes positively to the full range of prosocial bystander roles. This includes not only victim defense (as in the present study) but also not reinforcing the bully, not ridiculing the victim, or not doing anything (Marsh et al, 2022). Perhaps some of these additional bystander roles are as effective as the defender role when enacted in a supportive classroom climate.…”

Resilience mediates the effect of peer victimization on quality of life in Chongqing adolescents: from a perspective of positive childhood experiences

“…The three items were designed for measuring peer victimization referring to Marsh et al (2023) description of the three main domains of peer victimization including verbal, physical, and social/relational and the formulation of peer violence items in the ACE-IQ (Gette et al, 2022): "Have you been hit, kicked, or deliberately locked indoors by your peers or classmates?" "Have you been deliberately excluded from the activity by your peers or classmates, or have you been completely ignored?"…”

“…According to the trauma theory (Herman, 1992), most adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic because they will harm people's physical and psychological health (Chen et al, 2021). As a type of ACEs (Almuneef et al, 2018;Gette et al, 2022), peer victimization involves harmful acts of aggression intentionally committed by the bully, which may occur between individuals and groups in a context of power imbalance (Marsh et al, 2023). The three main dimensions of peer victimization include verbal (e.g., being called insulting nicknames, hurtful joking, and teasing), physical (e.g., being hit, being thrown with things, and being physically threatened), and social/relational (e.g., isolation and exclusion from activities by peers) (Marengo et al, 2019;Marsh et al, 2023).…”