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Managing Threat: Do Social‐Cognitive Processes Mediate the Link Between Peer Victimization and Adjustment Problems in Early Adolescence?
Author(s) -
Hoglund Wendy L.,
Leadbeater Bonnie J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00533.x
Subject(s) - psychology , peer victimization , aggression , cognition , attribution , interpersonal communication , developmental psychology , anxiety , perspective (graphical) , social anxiety , social skills , interpersonal relationship , social cognition , social psychology , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , medicine , environmental health , neuroscience , psychiatry , artificial intelligence , computer science
Peer victimization has been linked concurrently and over time with multiple adjustment problems. However, the reasons for this multi‐finality in victimization are not well understood. The current study examines social‐cognitive processes (hostile attributions, social perspective awareness, and interpersonal skills) as mediators of the relations between subtypes of peer victimization (relational, physical) and depression and anxiety, social withdrawal, and physical aggression in early adolescence. The overall pattern of associations among subtypes of victimization, social‐cognitive processes, and adjustment converged with expectations that victimization biases adolescents' cognitions about peers in conflict situations and skills relating to peers. In turn, these cognitions and skills differentially compromised their ability to regulate diverse emotions or limit reticent behaviors in response to peer threats. Modest gender differences in these associations were found.