Citation

Schwartz D, Dodge KA, Pettit GS, Bates JE. Dev. Psychol. 2000; 36(5): 646-662.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90080-1061, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10976604

PMCID

PMC2767178

Abstract

Two prospective investigations of the moderating role of dyadic friendship in the developmental pathway to peer victimization are reported. In Study 1, the preschool home environments (i.e., harsh discipline, marital conflict, stress, abuse, and maternal hostility) of 389 children were assessed by trained interviewers. These children were then followed into the middle years of elementary school, with peer victimization, group social acceptance, and friendship assessed annually with a peer nomination inventory. In Study 2, the home environments of 243 children were assessed in the summer before 1st grade, and victimization, group acceptance, and friendship were assessed annually over the next 3 years. In both studies, early harsh, punitive, and hostile family environments predicted later victimization by peers for children who had a low number of friendships. However, the predictive associations did not hold for children who had numerous friendships. These findings provide support for conceptualizations of friendship as a moderating factor in the pathways to peer group victimization.

Language: en