童年中晚期同伴侵害对儿童心理社会适应影响的纵向分析

采用间隔两年的纵向设计, 通过对1767名儿童的同伴侵害以及孤独、抑郁、攻击、行为不良、同伴接纳、同伴拒绝等心理社会适应指标进行调查, 综合运用变量定向的方法和个体定向的方法考察了童年中晚期儿童心理社会适应发展的结果模式, 以及同伴侵害对儿童心理社会适应发展的影响。结果发现, (1)身体侵害、关系侵害与心理社会适应各指标存在显著的即时与纵向相关关系。(2)儿童心理社会适应结果表现为内化问题、外化问题、同伴拒绝、正常发展4种模式。(3)判别分析显示, 9岁的同伴侵害(主要为身体侵害)能预测同伴拒绝、外化问题适应结果模式, 11岁的同伴侵害(主要为关系侵害)能预测内化问题、同伴拒绝适应结果模式。这些结果表明同伴侵害与儿童心理社会适应间的联系具有异质性, 并且先前和当前的侵害经历以及不同类型的侵害与心理社会适应间的联系因适应领域的不同而存在差异。

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Association Between Peer Victimization and Patterns of Psychosocial Adjustment During Middle and Late Childhood

Considerable percentage of children experienced certain kinds or extent of peer victimization during childhood, which impelled researchers to explore the multiple negative impact of peer victimization on children’s psychosocial adjustment. However, the existing studies in this area employed variable-oriented approach and only revealed the averaged association between peer victimization and children’s psychosocial adjustment. Research in developmental psychopathology indicated that a particular risk may have different developmental implications for, and lead to different developmental outcomes on different individuals, which was referred as multifinality (Kerig &; Wenar, 2006, p. 22). The Probabilistic Epigenesis (Gottlieb, 2007; Gottlieb &; Willoughby, 2006) also suggested that the same antecedent would cause different outcomes of development because of reaction potential and interaction. Based on these theoretical perspectives, we expected that peer victimization – although the same kind of negative peer experience – would result in different kinds of maladjustment among different children, i.e. there were heterogeneity in the impact of peer victimization on children’s psychosocial adjustment. Besides, the existing literatures on peer victimization mainly focused on its physical form, and relatively less was known about the impact of relational victimization on children’s psychosocial adjustment. Using both variable-oriented and person-oriented approaches, the current study was to identify the developmental patterns of children’s psychosocial adjustment different children exhibited from middle to late childhood and explore the associations between peer victimization and developmental patterns of children’s psychosocial adjustment. The heterogeneity of the associations, and the immediate and prospective relationships between physical victimization and relational victimization and the different patterns of children’s psychosocial adjustment were emphasized. 1767 children from 40 classes of 14 primary schools in Jinan, a city in mid-east China were followed from age 9 to 11. A series of self-reported questionnaires were administered to tap the children’s experience of peer victimization, and feeling of loneliness and depression. The Aggression and Delinquency subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist were finished by the children’s mothers, and peer acceptance and rejection were obtained through peer nomination. All of the measures showed good reliability. Significant correlations existed between the two forms of peer victimization and all indicators of children’s psychosocial adjustment. Using the standard residuals of each indicator of psychosocial adjustment for controlling the developmental stability of each of the indicators of the psychosocial adjustment, latent profile analysis (LPA) showed 4 developmental patterns of children’s psychosocial adjustment from middle to late childhood. That is internalizing, externalizing, peer rejection, and normal development patterns. Discriminant analysis (DA) indicated associations between peer victimization and the four patterns of psychosocial adjustment. Specifically, victimization (mainly the physical form) at age 9 was associated with the peer rejection pattern and externalizing pattern, and victimization (mainly the relational form) at age 11 with the internalizing and peer rejection patterns. These results indicated that peer victimization was associated with different patterns of psychosocial adjustment and not all children victimized by peers developed the same kind of psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, the effects of earlier and current victimization, and those of the physical and relational forms of victimization on psychosocial adjustment differed regarding to the different areas of psychosocial adjustment. Future directions in research on the associations between peer victimization and children’s psychosocial adjustment were discussed.