University of Kentucky
Friend Over Foe: The Protective Function of Friendship Quality for Children with a History of Chronic Victimization
Institution
University of Kentucky
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Monica Kern; Richard Milich
Abstract
My research builds on the extensive literature in the field of peer victimization. Specifically, it examines whether friendship is a moderator in the relation between victimization history and the development of implicit victimization beliefs among children ages 9-13. The Emotional Stroop Task and the Implicit Associations Task are tasks that attempt to measure the degree to which certain children implicitly develop victimization beliefs. By measuring participants’ response time to provocative social words and categories, these tasks register the internalizing effects of perpetual peer harassment. After giving a series of responses to questionnaires and ambiguous stories relating to their peers, the children described their best friends and offer specific narrative accounts of their experiences with friends. As a corollary to the current social support literature, it is the researchers’ belief that friendship quality will moderate the development of negative affect from victimization experiences. The precise role of friendship quality for those who suffer from chronic victimization is yet to be determined, and this study is unique in its efforts to explore this construct by analyzing rich narrative data. Implications for various social interventions among these peer groups will be discussed.
Friend Over Foe: The Protective Function of Friendship Quality for Children with a History of Chronic Victimization
My research builds on the extensive literature in the field of peer victimization. Specifically, it examines whether friendship is a moderator in the relation between victimization history and the development of implicit victimization beliefs among children ages 9-13. The Emotional Stroop Task and the Implicit Associations Task are tasks that attempt to measure the degree to which certain children implicitly develop victimization beliefs. By measuring participants’ response time to provocative social words and categories, these tasks register the internalizing effects of perpetual peer harassment. After giving a series of responses to questionnaires and ambiguous stories relating to their peers, the children described their best friends and offer specific narrative accounts of their experiences with friends. As a corollary to the current social support literature, it is the researchers’ belief that friendship quality will moderate the development of negative affect from victimization experiences. The precise role of friendship quality for those who suffer from chronic victimization is yet to be determined, and this study is unique in its efforts to explore this construct by analyzing rich narrative data. Implications for various social interventions among these peer groups will be discussed.