Social and Physical Victimization in Elementary and Middle School as Correlates of Anxiety and Depression
Abstract
Social aggression, hurting others by damaging their self-esteem or social status, is still a
relatively unexplored, though important, area of psychology. This type of behavior is
particularly prominent in girls, though it is also found among boys, and has been linked to
social-psychological adjustment problems in both aggressors and victims. The present
study examines the relationship between social and physical victimization and two
internalizing symptoms, anxious depression and withdrawn depression. Following a
longitudinal model, a total of 260 students completed self-report measures of victimization
and concurrent life satisfaction in fourth and sixth grades. Sixth-grade teachers completed
reports of their students' depressive symptoms. Results indicated that boys experience
more physical victimization, but there were no gender differences in social victimization.
Rates of both social and physical victimization dropped between fourth and sixth grade.
Among the whole sample, both social and physical victimization were related to less
happiness in school and overall, as well as to both anxious and withdrawn depression. For
boys, however, only the rate of prosocial treatment seemed to have a negative effect on
concurrent happiness or future adjustment, with boys who received fewer prosocial acts
reporting less happiness and more depression.