A study of peer victimization and psychosocial maladjustment of Indian children studying in wellington New Zealand

The study is based upon previous work done by Hodges and Perry that suggests longitudinal relations between victimization and negative psychosocial outcomes, as well as between psychosocial maladjustment and the consequential experience of peer victimization, may be moderated by social or interpersonal factors. Participants were 30 sixth and seventh graders (20 boys and 10 girls, mean age = 12.23) from two urban middle schools of wellington. They were Indian. All students received parental consent, signed assent forms, and completed several measures over the course of two days at two different time points, 6 months apart. The Peer Nomination Inventory (PNI), and a sociometrist measure were used. The Indian children were asked to identify their same-sex, same-grade peers that displayed particular behaviors. The PNI yielded five scales that were used in the present study: aggression, physical strength (reverse coded to indicate lack of physical strength), withdrawal, anxiety/depression, and victimization. The score ranging from 0 to 100 was determined for each child on each construct by calculating the percentage of peer who nominated the child for each item, and averaging over the items on that scale. The results were found out as expected, interpersonal factors moderated many of the longitudinal associations between the personal factors and victimization. Most notably, victimization predicted increases in internalizing behaviors (anxiety/depression and withdrawal) only under higher levels of peer rejection and number of reciprocated enemies, and lower levels of peer acceptance. Additionally, anxiety/depression predicted increases in victimization over time, again only under high levels of the negative interpersonal factors. These results underscore the importance of recognizing social contextual factors that promote the cyclical relations between peer victimization and psychosocial maladjustment of Indian children who had undertaken this study in wellington New Zealand.