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Aggression/victimization in school is a problem that is associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors which may develop into long term emotional problems for the child.Sixth grade is a transitional period in a child's life, whereby a child experiences hormonal changes, enters a new school and establishes social status. Depending on the child's emotional well-being, these are antecedents that are related to experiencing aggression/victimization. Children develop within a context. Within this context there are parents, adults, siblings, peersand teachers whereby the child learns behaviors through proximal and distal interactions which may impact the child's life either positively or negatively. Within this context the child developsresilience, which is a protective factor that enables the child to "bounce back" from negative situations. The goal of this study is to establish a connection between the environment in which achild develops and the impact emotional well-being, peers and adults have on a child in relation to experiencing aggression and ultimately becoming a victim. The findings indicate that childrenwho suffer from emotional distress are more likely to become victims and children who have supportive adults in their lives are less likely to become victims. Overall, emotional distressplays a negative role and resilience plays a positive and protective role in a child's life. This outcome suggests that prevention/interventions should be created whereby a child has more supportive adults in their lives creating a resilient environment.

Peer victimization among children is a major concern in our society as it is associated with a number of adjustment difficulties that manifest over time. Although peer victimization declines for most children during the elementary school years, research suggests that between 2-25% of children continue to report high-stable or increasing levels of peer victimization over time. However, little is known about the developmental changes that explain why children become locked into these high-risk groups. Using a longitudinal sample of children in grades 1-3 followed across 5 waves of assessments, this dissertation investigated how differences in the chronicity of children's peer victimization experiences relate to changes in their mental health (internalizing and externalizing symptoms), social competence (prosocial leadership and social responsibility), and experiences of school climate. Latent class analyses revealed that children follow 4 distinct trajectory groups of physical and relational peer victimization characterized by chronically high (ns = 102 & 199, physical and relational respectively), increasing (ns = 115 & 169), decreasing (ns = 466 & 174) or low stable (ns = 1260 & 1402) levels of physical and relational peer victimization across time. Findings from multilevel analyses showed that the peer victimization subgroups also varied in their longitudinal patterns of mental health, social competence and experiences of school climate after accounting for differences in sex, age, socioeconomic status, and prevention program participation. Children who had chronically high levels of peer victimization had higher mental health symptoms, lower levels of social competence and poorer experiences of school climate consistently over time compared to children in the low stable group. Children who reported increasing levels of peer victimization over time had slower rates of improvement in their social competence than children in the low stable group. Furthermore, children with increasing levels of peer victimization also had declining experiences of school climate over time compared to children in the low stable peer victimization group. The heterogeneity in children’s experiences of peer victimization suggest that programs need to tailor prevention efforts to the specific needs of at-risk children who adjust differently to their victimization experiences. / Graduate

A significant, yet understudied issue that demands attention is the experience of peer victimization among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Research indicates that youth with disabilities, including those with ASDs, are victimized more frequently as compared to their typically developing peers. However, little is known about the peer victimization experience for adolescents with ASDs beyond its frequency of occurrence. This study examined relations between peer victimization and individual, peer, and parent factors and outcomes including internalizing and externalizing symptoms among adolescents with ASDs. No significant indirect effects were found for peer victimization on relations between individual social-cognitive and emotion regulation factors and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Moderating effects of peer (i.e., friendship companionship, closeness, and help) factors on relations between peer victimization and internalizing and externalizing symptoms were not supported. Significant direct effects were found as higher levels of friendship companionship and help were associated with lower levels of internalizing symptoms. Parental knowledge moderated the relations between both adolescent-reported and parent-reported peer victimization and internalizing but not externalizing symptoms. Study findings have implications for prevention and intervention efforts including adolescents with ASDs and directions for future research.

Over 12 million incidents of intimate partner victimization (IPV) occur each year in the U.S (Black et al. 2010). Moreover, approximately 363 per 100,000 Canadians are victims of IPV each year (Statistics Canada 2010). Due to these high victimization rates, many scholars have turned their attention to IPV research. However, there is still some debate as to what are the strongest correlates of IPV. This thesis examines risk factors (gender, geographic location, presence of children, Aboriginal status, and minority status) and theories (self-control, routine activities, social disorganization, and collective efficacy) as predictors of IPV. I use Statistics Canada’s 2009 General Social Survey (GSS) to develop our understanding of IPV. More specifically, this thesis examines how these theoretical perspectives help to explain three particular forms of IPV: physical, sexual, and financial. In order to help policy creation, this thesis explores differences between the explanatory power of risk factors, self-control, routine activities, social disorganization, and collective efficacy on IPV and general victimization (e.g., abuse carried out by someone not necessarily known to the victim). Overall, the findings provided some support for the theoretical expectations. With regard to the risk factor variables, women were more likely to experience sexual and financial IPV. Aboriginals were more likely to experience sexual IPV. Self-control theory worked in the opposite direction than was expected. Low self-control decreased the risk of financial IPV. Routine activities theory explained physical IPV to some degree in that routinely going out to a bar at night decreased the odds of physical IPV. Moreover, the findings revealed that low collective efficacy increased the odds of physical IPV and mediated the effects of routine activities theory. Finally, this thesis provided policy suggestions to reduce IPV and victimization in general. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2014-03-21 16:34:44.083

The landscape of the childhood victimization literature is shifting, with a growing number of researchers emphasizing the importance of designing studies that account for and aim to disentangle the interconnections among victimization experiences. This is a notable contrast to the bulk of the scientific inquiry to date, which has tended to examine victimization experiences in isolation from one another and has created victimization-specific models of risk. On the other hand, the multiple victimization field aims to better understand the overlap among risk factors and the co-occurrence across victimization experiences to create general or non-specific risk models for childhood victimization. From this field emerged the concept of multiple victimization (defined as exposure to more than one type of victimization within a specified time period), that has been established as the unfortunate norm among victimized children. The current dissertation was designed not only to help attain a better understanding of the phenomenon of childhood multiple victimization but also to contribute to our understanding of the frequency, co-occurrence, and risk (grounded in the ecological framework) of childhood multiple victimization. This dissertation addresses important shortcomings of the published literature, such as the scarcity of studies that account for the co-occurrence among victimization experiences, the limited victimization data on school-aged children and clinical samples, and the dearth of studies that test comprehensive risk models of multiple victimization. Caregivers of school-aged children (N = 213) in the Ottawa/Gatineau area participated in the online study, which involved the completion of a 30-minute questionnaire package that assessed their child’s victimization experiences as well as child (e.g., sex, age), family (e.g., caregiver psychosocial functioning, family functioning), and neighbourhood (e.g., safety) factors. Results provided support for the ubiquitous nature of childhood multiple victimization (in the past year and lifetime) as well as for the common co-occurrence of various victimization experiences. Specifically, while a certain overlap was found across all victimization forms, conventional crimes and peer and/or sibling victimization co-occurred most often in this school-aged sample. In addition, victimization forms that may be qualified as “severe” (sexual victimization, Internet victimization, maltreatment) tended to co-occur with many additional forms and were rarely reported on their own. Findings highlighted the important associations between victimization exposure and psychosocial difficulties (anxiety, depression, aggression, and posttraumatic stress), and weighting techniques (i.e., weighting severe victimization forms more heavily) were not found to significantly contribute to better predictability of psychosocial difficulties. Turning to the risk models, a number of correlates of childhood multiple victimization were identified, most notably family variables including family dysfunction, caregiver psychosocial functioning, and substance use problems. However, a number of correlates (particularly socio-demographic factors) were also found to vary according to the victimization experiences assessed, providing partial support for the specificity assumption whereby victimization risk models vary according to the victimization form assessed. The theoretical and applied implications of research findings for efforts aimed at addressing childhood multiple victimization were also discussed.

Bullying is a prevalent and pervasive issue that can have both immediate and long-term detrimental effects on victims. Researchers have shown that victims of bullying may continue to experience negative outcomes into adulthood, where they may possibly have victimized children of their own. We examined whether parents’ history of peer victimization moderated the relation between their children’s self-reported peer victimization and children’s depression symptoms in a sample of 417 parent-child dyads from the McMaster Teen Study. Possible confounding variables, such as sex of the child, parent’s relationship to the child, parental education, and household income, were controlled for statistically. Consistent with our initial prediction, results indicated that parents’ past victimization moderated the relation between child peer victimization and depression symptoms, but only when parent reports of child depression symptoms were used, not child self-reports. Implications for parental history of bullying as a potential source of bias in reports are discussed.

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