Impact of Peer Victimization on Normal Child Development - Literature review Example

Impact of Peer Victimization on Normal Child Development Mental health practitioners, parents, and educators are becoming more and more worried about the prevalence of bullying or peer victimization in schools. Bullying can be described as verbal or physical intimidation that is perpetrated to intimidate or hurt bullied individuals. In the past, bullying was regarded to be a component of healthy child development. Nevertheless, current studies have stressed the adverse impact of bullying on normal child development. Bullying has been related to anxiety, poor sense of worth, depression, and general maladjustment or neurosis up to a decade after the incident has taken place (Harris 38). Nowadays, bullying is considered as a public health issue associated with school aggression, and experts are trying to more accurately identify the contributing or risk factors of bullying in schools. Researchers who investigate bullying or peer victimization usually place emphasis on the child’s attributes—psychological, behavioral, cognitive—or aspects of the immediate environment of the child—school, family, peers—when they examine the possible roots of this problem. These research frameworks indicate that researchers know, at least indirectly, that both environmental and child attributes influence peer victimization and how such adverse occurrences affect the development or adjustment of the child (Nansel et al. 2095). Reasoning also argues that peer victimization is not triggered by child attributes only; the features that a child has or exhibits are rooted in particular environmental situations, and such situations have a tendency to differ in the degree to which they allow or are favorable to peer victimization. Given these considerations, there is value in taking into consideration environment and child models as theoretical perspectives for informing or orienting studies on peer victimization and for analyzing current findings or evidence. Peer Victimization and Child Development Basically speaking, environment and child frameworks state that features of the child and his/her environment work together to bring about peer victimization or to influence the coping or adjustment capacity of the child. Integral in these models are ideas about (Harris 28): (a) the locus of these factors (e.g., within the child, within the child’s environment, or both), (b) the observable manifestations of such characteristics (e.g. a child’s behavioral tendencies, such as impulsivity, aggression, passivity; differences in social environments, such as more versus less accepting peer groups), and (c) the way these factors combine or interact to determine children’s risk for victimization. The last of these ideas characterizes the environmental and child framework. Even though very few studies have been carried out that essentially investigates how child and environment attributes work together, or mutually influence the risk of children for peer victimization, several studies have been carried out that either, directly or indirectly, give insights about how environmental and child aspects are interconnected (Harris 28-29). For instance, those who discover that environmental aspects, like styles of parenting, raise the risk of a child for peer victimization have a tendency to hypothesize those particular parent attitudes, like domineering parenting, influence susceptibility to peer victimization through related social competence. In other words, parent behaviors or styles of parenting either encourage useful pro-social social competencies, or promote the growth of maladaptive or dysfunctional behavioral patterns, like apathy or antagonism (Grills & Ollendick 62). Consequently, it is the social behavior of a child that enhances his/her vulnerability to peer victimization. Hence, regardless if researchers truly assess children’s social competence or not, both environmental and child aspects are generally thought to be contributing factors in these studies. In general, all kinds of peer victimization have been reported to be related to negative social, emotional, and physical development, such as mental and psychological disorders and incompetent future school coping and adjustment capabilities. Nansel and colleagues (2001) examined studies from Norway, Finland, and Australia that demonstrated that psychosocial problems could be related to peer victimization and continue into future adolescence and adulthood. Future school maladjustment has been associated with the extent of the peer victimization—persistent, severe bullying, for instance, is related to more serious school maladjustment. A weak peer relationship, brought about by peer victimization, can hinder cognitive growth. Moreover, victims could have negative behaviors toward their peers, likely to result in self-control difficulties, aggression, and possible unwary or hostile attitude exercised to hit back against other individuals and/or groups (Nansel et al. 2095). Because of the value of belongingness, social competence, experiences, and childhood behavioral pattern are fundamental in development. Victims of peer aggression have a smaller number of chances to develop effective coping and social capabilities, making them more at risk of the traumatic consequences of peer victimization. Building strong and positive romantic relationships and peer relationships is a developmental process starting in childhood and continuing into adolescence and early adulthood (Boyd & Bee 68). Successfully completed developmental processes associated with peer performance become adulthood processes for evaluating resilience and capability by the individual and community; peer relationships and peer refusal may work as moderating or mediating adult mechanisms diverging from or moving toward adult psychopathology (Muris 92). Peer victimization, like bullying, during childhood is a widespread occurrence that adversely influences psychosocial adjustment of adolescents. A number of studies have shown that peer victimization is related to increased levels of coexisting and potential levels of adopting signs on the initial evaluation stage but also prognostic of these signs at a follow-up (Muris 84). Hawker and Boulton (2001) studied the impact of peer victimization on different forms of dysfunctional adjustment. Even though their study showed that victimization was most significantly associated with poor self-worth, depression, and isolation, links to different markers were also conclusively strong and direct. In recent years, several studies have emerged examining the effect of childhood peer victimization, especially teasing, on psychosocial grief in adulthood. Findings strongly showed that childhood peer victimization experiences were directly associated with anxiety vulnerability, fear of rejection and social anxiety, even though the links to several anxiety occurrences, such as fear of rejection, were stronger compared to others. Likewise, Storch and associates reported that adverse social experiences were strongly related to social anxiety syndromes and even prognostic of social phobia in adulthood (Harris 55). Hence it can be assumed that peer victimization is an adverse environmental attribute that appears to be associated with the growth of anxiety syndromes in adolescents. In order to understand the negative impact of peer victimization, a number of processes has been included (Muris 71): First, overt aggression may directly elicit fear and anxiety in the child victim. Second, it can be assumed that the negative feedback from aggressive peers is internalized in the form of negative self-evaluations, which in turn enhance fearful responding and even avoidance in subsequent social situations. Third, it may well be that peer victimization interacts with adverse personality characteristics to produce high anxiety levels. Grills and Ollendick (2002), for instance, showed that self-worth mediates the connection between anxiety and victimization. Developmental Theories on the Effect of Problems on Normal Development Attention paid to the repercussions of dysfunctional peer relationships for the continuing or long-term psychological and behavioral adjustment of children can be traced back to the oldest period of studies on the peer functioning of children. In fact, the idea that children with problematic relationships are vulnerable to later life problems is a commonly held assumption about psychopathology and development and has served a significant function in encouraging studies on children’s peer relationships (Parker et al. 425). Generally, existing evidence or findings do offer convincing proof of a connection between unhealthy peer experiences during childhood and the vulnerability of children to consequent mental health problems. Aside from expanding the perspective of children as dynamically involved in activities to process and apply environmental aspects, developmental constructivists like Vygotsky and Piaget have emphasized how core attributes of interpersonal relations affect the growth of moral attitude, social competence, language, and knowledge (Parker et al. 437). A vital differentiation in this model includes the ‘differential affordances’ of interpersonal interactions between children and between adult and child, a differentiation that Hartup (1989) described as the difference between vertical against horizontal relations (Parker et al. 437): [Children’s vertical attachment are] attachments to individual who have greater knowledge and social power than they do. These relationships, most commonly involving children and adults, encompass a wide variety of interactions among which complementary exchanges are especially salient. For example, adult actions toward children consist mainly of nurturance and controlling behaviors, whereas children’s actions toward adults consist mainly of submission and appeals for succorance. [Children’s horizontal attachments are] relationships with individuals who have the same amount of social power as themselves. Ordinarily, these relationships involve other children and are marked by reciprocity and egalitarian expectations. The notion of the disparate socialization prospects in vertical or ‘adult’ against horizontal or ‘peer’ interpersonal settings has been particularly popular in the areas of moral and cognitive development (Harris 106). Constructivist models of cognitive development have been studied in several correlations in recent years. These studies widely assume that under particular situations, as well as those that take place often and naturally during peer socialization, communication with other children can facilitate children’s logical and scientific thinking, high academic performance, language competence, and problem-solving abilities. The leading suggestion of Piaget was that peers facilitate the progress of the cognitive development of one another through efforts to settle differences rooted in the dissimilarities in their perceptions of an issue (Parker et al. 437-39). As a child socializes with other children, s/he becomes informed of the conflicts between his/her personal perception of an issue and that of others. This contradiction creates imbalance that can push children to other and greater reasoning. Significantly, according to Piaget, it was not really the mere experience with the new or higher level problem-solving techniques of others, as the chance to evaluate one’s own perception that was crucial; except if children accepted the ineffectiveness of their past cognitive techniques they were not likely to leave them (Boyd & Bee 86). While Piaget stressed the role of symmetric relationships, such as peers of the same cognitive and social situation, Vygotsky stressed the role of asymmetric relationships (i.e. adult-child) to cognitive development. In general, it seems that the empirical literature widely substantiates numerous of the theoretical assumptions of Vygotsky and Piaget concerning the value of peers in the cognitive development of children (Parker et al. 438). Thus, based on such assumptions, a problematic peer relationship implies disordered cognitive development. Such assertion is based partly on a large number of studies that examine dissimilarities in the peer relationship histories of dysfunctional against non-dysfunctional adults. The Borysenko model is relevant at this point. Borysenko (1987) explained the conflict inherent in ‘stress-induced dysregulation’ (Seaward 64). Once the autonomic nervous system discharges too many stress hormones, a number of physiological outcomes can arise, such as hypertension and migraines. Additional studies show that severe psychological stress reduces or weakens NK cell performance through a serious impact on the production of cytokine. Adverse occurrences, like peer victimization, can lead to such physiological outcomes because, as have been reported in numerous studies, it causes stress and trauma to the victims; due to the numerous roles that peer relationships are believed to occupy in development, it is not unexpected that issues of whether and how the development of children are weakened by continuous problems with peers (Seaward 64). Issues regarding the role of peer relationships in development and those including the outcomes of peer rejection or other adverse experiences are clearly connected. The more accurately people know the contributions of peer experiences to development the more insight they can have concerning which children tend to be vulnerable to wide adjustment problems and which domains of adjustment are probable to be harmed in these children. Developmental psychopathologists have openly acknowledged the significance of adjustment with peers during childhood, and have stressed several of the adverse outcomes for children of growing peer victimization or problematic peer relationship. Yet, it can be said that developmental psychopathologists have inadequately applied or utilized numerous of the ideas and findings of researchers who have examined peer interactions of children beyond that perspective. However, studies on the peer relationships of children can somehow be viewed as typical of the development psychopathology model (Harris 112). For instance, a leading premise behind a development psychopathology model is that a person develops growing structure and flexibility. Such idea rightly describes the developmental pattern in some aspects of children’s peer interactions, like the development of children’s notions of attachment or companionship and the patterns of development in the play activities of very young children. In addition, numerous aspects of abusive families are thought to hinder the development of positive and effective peer relationships in maltreated children. A more accurate knowledge of the peer interactions and experiences of abused children can offer development psychopathologists with ideas on how this severe harm in parent-child relationships influences the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development of maltreated children (Parker et al. 441). Nevertheless, for scholars of peer relationships, the investigation of abused children’s attachments and other experiences with peers is applied as study hypotheses about the contribution of particular skills in flexible peer relationship. Conclusions While the developmental importance of peer relationships has become more definite, knowing the causes and outcomes of peer experiences has become more complicated and perhaps less manageable. Primarily, it is harder today than in the past to recognize which children are having problems with their peer interactions. The past period has seen unparalleled progress in the development and improvement of methodologies for examining adjustment with peers. Works Cited Boyd, Denise & Helen Bee. Lifespan Development. New York: Pearson Education, 2011. Print. Grills, A.E. & T.H. Ollendick. “Peer victimization, global self-worth, and anxiety in middle school children,” Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31 (2002): 59-68. Print. Harris, Monica. Bullying, Rejection, & Peer Victimization: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2009. Print. Hawker, D.S. & M.J. Boulton. “Subtypes of peer harassment and their correlates: A social dominance perspective,” Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized (2001): 378-397. Print. Muris, Peter. Normal and Abnormal Fear and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents. UK: Elsevier, 2010. Print. Nansel, T.R. et al. “Bullying behaviors among US youth: Prevalence and association with psychological adjustment”, Journal of the American Medical Association 285 (2001): 2094-2100. Print. Parker, Jeffrey et al. Peer Relationships, Child Development, and Adjustment: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective, 2005. Web. 20 July 2014. Seaward, Brian. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-Being. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011. Print. Read More