Peer Victimization and Its Adverse Effects on Self-Schema in Children and Adolescents
McMillan, Jessica
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2013-04-19
Abstract
Our current study builds on Beck’s cognitive model of depression by testing whether peer victimization gives rise to depressive schemas in children and adolescents. Specifically, we created a model stating that chronic peer victimization affects the construction of self-cognitions and adds negative information to the content of self-schema, in turn predisposing for depression. Stemming from a larger 2-year, 3-wave longitudinal study, our experimental study yielded a sample of elementary and middle children who were either chronically peer victimized (n = 110) or those who were not (n = 105). Using self-reports and a self-referent encoding task, this study yielded four major findings: (1) all forms of chronic peer victimization were positively associated with students’ self-reported negative self-cognitions, (2) all forms of peer victimization were negatively related to students’ self-reported positive self-cognitions, (3) relational and verbal peer victimization were related to a decrease in or eradication of the positive memorial bias, and (4) the association between peer victimization and some indicators of depressive self-schemas was stronger for relational and verbal peer victimization than for physical peer victimization. Clinical implications and future research are also elaborated upon in this study.