Cargando…

Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction

Bullying is a major problem in schools and a large number of studies have demonstrated that victims have a high excess risk of poor mental health. It may however also affect those who are not directly victimized by peers. The present study investigates whether peer victimization among classmates is...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Låftman, Sara B., Modin, Bitte
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664719/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29027932
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14101218
_version_ 1783275041105903616
author Låftman, Sara B.
Modin, Bitte
author_facet Låftman, Sara B.
Modin, Bitte
author_sort Låftman, Sara B.
collection PubMed
description Bullying is a major problem in schools and a large number of studies have demonstrated that victims have a high excess risk of poor mental health. It may however also affect those who are not directly victimized by peers. The present study investigates whether peer victimization among classmates is linked to internalizing problems, self-esteem, and life satisfaction at the individual level, when the student’s own victimization has been taken into account. The data were derived from the first wave of the Swedish part of Youth in Europe Study (YES!), including information on 4319 students in grade 8 (14–15 years of age) distributed across 242 classes. Results from multilevel analyses show a significant association between classes with a high proportion of students being victimized and higher levels of internalizing problems, lower self-esteem, and lower life satisfaction at the student level. This association holds when the student’s own victimization has been taken into account. This suggests that peer victimization negatively affects those who are directly exposed, as well as their classmates. We conclude that efficient methods and interventions to reduce bullying in school are likely to benefit not only those who are victimized, but all students.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5664719
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-56647192017-11-06 Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction Låftman, Sara B. Modin, Bitte Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Bullying is a major problem in schools and a large number of studies have demonstrated that victims have a high excess risk of poor mental health. It may however also affect those who are not directly victimized by peers. The present study investigates whether peer victimization among classmates is linked to internalizing problems, self-esteem, and life satisfaction at the individual level, when the student’s own victimization has been taken into account. The data were derived from the first wave of the Swedish part of Youth in Europe Study (YES!), including information on 4319 students in grade 8 (14–15 years of age) distributed across 242 classes. Results from multilevel analyses show a significant association between classes with a high proportion of students being victimized and higher levels of internalizing problems, lower self-esteem, and lower life satisfaction at the student level. This association holds when the student’s own victimization has been taken into account. This suggests that peer victimization negatively affects those who are directly exposed, as well as their classmates. We conclude that efficient methods and interventions to reduce bullying in school are likely to benefit not only those who are victimized, but all students. MDPI 2017-10-13 2017-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5664719/ /pubmed/29027932 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14101218 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Låftman, Sara B.
Modin, Bitte
Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
title Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
title_full Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
title_fullStr Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
title_full_unstemmed Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
title_short Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction
title_sort peer victimization among classmates—associations with students’ internalizing problems, self-esteem, and life satisfaction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664719/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29027932
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14101218
work_keys_str_mv AT laftmansarab peervictimizationamongclassmatesassociationswithstudentsinternalizingproblemsselfesteemandlifesatisfaction
AT modinbitte peervictimizationamongclassmatesassociationswithstudentsinternalizingproblemsselfesteemandlifesatisfaction