NRSAFellowship / Rosen: Victim Schema and Peer Victimization

Peer victimization is a serious problem of childhood that has been shown to lead to internalizing and externalizing difficulties. It has been proposed that chronic peer victims have an easily accessible "victim schema" that lead them to engage in behaviors that lead to victimization. Children with easily accessible victim schemas are likely to associate themselves implicitly as victims, experience dyscontrolled emotional arousal in response to threats, make hostile attributions, and respond with inappropriately submissive or reactive behaviors. The aim of the present study is to test whether the presence of an easily accessible victim schema predicts future peer victimization. The present study will use a longitudinal, multi-cohort design to assess the relation of victim schema to peer victimization. Children from the community will be assessed at baseline and one-year follow-up. Participants will be administered implicit cognitive measures to assess the accessibility of their victim schema and explicit questionnaires regarding their histories of peer victimization experiences. The primary hypothesis is that the presence of an easily accesible victimization will influence both concurrent and future peer victimization status.