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Twenty Years' Research on Peer Victimization and Psychosocial Maladjustment: A Meta‐analytic Review of Cross‐sectional Studies
Author(s) -
Hawker David S. J.,
Boulton Michael J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00629
Subject(s) - loneliness , peer victimization , psychology , psychosocial , anxiety , clinical psychology , association (psychology) , poison control , distress , social anxiety , cross sectional study , injury prevention , developmental psychology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , medicine , environmental health , pathology
Cross‐sectional quantitative designs are often used to investigate whether peer victimization is positively related to psychosocial maladjustment. This paper presents a meta‐analytic review of cross‐sectional studies, published between 1978 and 1997, of the association of peer victimization with psychosocial maladjustment. Mean effect sizes were calculated for the association between peer victimization and each form of maladjustment (depression, loneliness, generalized and social anxiety, and global and social self‐worth) assessed. The results suggested that victimization is most strongly related to depression, and least strongly related to anxiety. There was no evidence that victimization is more strongly related to social than to psychological forms of maladjustment. Effect sizes were stronger when the same informants were used to assess both victimization and maladjustment than when different informants were used. There were some design limitations to the studies reviewed, but all together their results provide a strong background for more complex research into the course and treatment of victims' distress.