Peer Victimization and Depressive Symptoms During Adolescence: Examining the Roles of Social Support and Internalizing Coping

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how two coping strategies together moderate the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment among young adolescents. Sixth-grade adolescents from California, Oregon, and Wisconsin (N = 1,058) self-reported peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and their utilization of social support seeking and internalizing coping. A regression analysis showed a significant three-way interaction between peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking in predicting depressive symptoms. Further analyses revealed that social support seeking only buffered the negative effects of peer victimization for participants who scored high on internalizing coping. Despite mean-level gender differences in these variables, gender did not moderate this association, suggesting that social support is an effective buffer against depressive symptoms following peer victimization for both boys and girls. These results suggest that attending to the variety of coping strategies adolescents employ simultaneously will help further our understanding of peer victimization outcomes.

Keywords

peer victimization internalizing coping social support adjustment

Peer victimization, or the experience of being physically, emotionally, or psychologically harmed by another child from school, is associated with a number of poor outcomes among adolescents. Multiple studies have revealed strong associations between experienced victimization and lasting depression and anxiety, lower academic achievement, and low self-esteem (McDougall & Vaillancourt, 2015). In addition, high levels of peer victimization increase adolescents’ risk for suicide and poor physical health (Nixon, 2014). While peer victimization occurs at all developmental stages (Troop-Gordon, 2017), young adolescents tend to show greater sensitivity to peer group acceptance and rejection (Stroud et al., 2009) and experience more school and peer group transitions that impact psychological adjustment (Crockett et al., 1989; Kingery et al., 2011). Thus, peer victimization is considered one of the most pervasive stressors facing young adolescents (e.g., Hong & Espelage, 2012). These robust associations linking peer victimization to psychological maladjustment are well established; yet, the mechanisms behind these associations, or potential factors that can reduce risk for maladjustment, are less understood. As a result, many researchers have examined the role coping has in impacting adolescents’ psychological adjustment in the face of peer victimization, but most research has examined the impacts of different coping strategies in isolation from one another. Thus, the present study examines the combined moderation effect of two forms of coping—specifically, internalizing coping and social support seeking—on the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment among young adolescents.

Research on adolescent coping has classified the mechanisms by which adolescents respond to and manage stressful situations into two categories: approach coping and avoidance (Fields & Prinz, 1997; Herman-Stabl et al., 1995; Roth & Cohen, 1986). Approach coping, also referred to as problem-focused or effortful engagement coping (Compas et al., 2001), involves using strategies such as problem-solving or social support seeking in an attempt to directly improve or alleviate the situation (Compas et al., 2001; Fields & Prinz, 1997), and is generally associated with more positive adjustment and reduced risk for depressive symptoms (Herman-Stabl et al., 1995). Social support seeking is considered an approach coping strategy as it involves actively addressing a stressor (Compas et al., 2001), but can be more problem-focused, aimed at seeking advice, or emotion-focused and intended to seek comfort for distress (Carver et al., 1989). In contrast, avoidance coping encompasses the various cognitive and emotional responses used that are not aimed at directly addressing the situation, including internalizing, externalizing, and distancing (Causey & Dubow, 1992). Internalizing coping is a form of involuntary engagement coping involving rumination, worry, and self-blame about the stressful event (Compas et al., 2001; Findlay et al., 2009). Greater use of avoidance over approach coping strategies has been associated with higher risk for depression, anxiety, and suicidality (Ebata & Moos, 1991; Horwitz et al., 2011; Seiffge-Krenke & Klessinger, 2000).

The use of internalizing coping involving rumination and self-blame over negative peer experiences has consistently been found to help explain the association between peer victimization and maladjustment. For example, Troop-Gordon et al. (2015) examined the effects of coping through involuntary engagement, or excessive worry or rumination following negative experiences. Involuntary engagement was found to partially mediate or explain the relationship between teacher-reported peer victimization and later depressive symptoms. In addition, Singh and Bussey (2011) examined how adolescents’ levels of self-blame and victim-role engagement can act as a mediator between victimization and the negative psychological symptoms that may follow. It was found that victimization frequency was associated with higher levels of self-blame, which were, in turn, positively correlated with social anxiety and depression. These findings suggest that it may not just be the experience of victimization alone that results in negative symptoms, but rather the negative self-attributions adolescents cognitively give themselves following their experience that increases risk for maladjustment. Other studies have yielded similar results (e.g., Garnefski & Kraaij, 2014; Harper, 2012; Ma et al., 2018; Monti et al., 2017) by finding that peer victimization is associated with increased levels of rumination, self-blame, or internalizing coping responses, which in turn, contribute to higher levels of depressive symptoms. These findings have been observed in both girls and boys (e.g., Hampel et al., 2009).

Separate studies have examined the potential protective benefits of social support among adolescents experiencing peer victimization, but the findings have been more mixed (Hansen et al., 2012; Noret et al., 2018). Several studies have found that support from parents can buffer adolescents from depressive symptoms following peer victimization (e.g., Kotchick et al., 2020), as well as high levels of perceived support from teachers, peers, or friends (Jenkins et al., 2018; Sulkowski & Simmons, 2018; Tanigawa et al., 2011; Worsley et al., 2019; Yeung & Leadbearer, 2010). Other studies, however, have found the relationship to be more nuanced. Davidson and Demaray (2007), for example, explored the role that perceived social support from peers, teachers, and parents may have in preventing peer victimized middle-school students from experiencing subsequent negative adjustment outcomes. Among those who reported high levels of victimization, females who reported high levels of social support from parents and males who reported high levels of support from teachers and classmates had lower levels of depression and anxiety than those reporting less perceived social support. However, friend support was not an effective buffer for boys or girls, contrary to the findings of other studies (e.g., Cooley et al., 2015). While these studies only focused on levels of perceived support and not the possible benefits of social support seeking, they help contextualize the benefits of social support seeking, as adolescents who report higher levels of perceived support are more likely to seek out support (Zimmer-Gembeck & Locke, 2007) and are more likely to believe they have control in managing stressful peer situations (Cicognani, 2011).

Nevertheless, research findings on the benefits of social support seeking have also been mixed. For example, Machmutow et al. (2012) found that those who reported seeking out the support of a close friend after being victimized experienced lower levels of depression, consistent with other studies finding seeking friend support to be helpful for both boys and girls in reducing risk for maladjustment in the face of peer victimization (e.g., Nixon et al., 2019). Similarly, adolescents who reported having a friend whom they felt comfortable going to for advice had lower levels of depressive symptoms following peer victimization (Hodges et al., 1999). However, other studies have found seeking out support in response to peer victimization to increase internal distress (Visconti & Troop-Gordon, 2010), or to only be effective among children who score low on negative emotionality (Sugimura et al., 2014). The effects of social support seeking have also been shown to vary by gender, with social support seeking linked to lower peer preference among boys experiencing peer victimization but fewer social problems among girls (Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002). Furthermore, research has found that boys are much less likely than girls to seek social support, especially about peer stress (Eschenbeck et al., 2007), and are less likely to view it as an effective strategy for coping with peer victimization (Hunter et al., 2004). Despite this, help-seeking behavior for a variety of stressors including peer victimization has been found to protect both boys and girls from psychological maladjustment (Heerde & Hemphill, 2018), especially among younger adolescents (Nixon et al., 2019).

It is possible that these conflicting findings are because these studies have largely explored the impacts of social support in isolation from other coping strategies. Despite typically being associated with divergent outcomes, adolescents do not use approach or avoidance strategies exclusively; instead, adolescents employ a variety of different strategies to cope with stressful experiences (Williams & McGillicuddy-De Lisi, 1999). Previous studies have particularly found social support seeking and internalizing coping to be correlated with one another, such that those who report higher levels of social support seeking are more likely to also use internalizing coping (Causey & Dubow, 1992; Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002). Yet, few studies have examined the combined impacts of internalizing and social support coping strategies, or how these strategies interact with experiences of peer victimization to influence adjustment. Thus, focusing on one coping strategy at a time may not fully capture how peer victimization is associated with psychological adjustment.

The Present Study

The current study seeks to extend previous research on the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment by examining how the use of internalizing coping, or the extent to which a person ruminates, worries about, or blames himself or herself for negative experiences, interacts with the use of social support seeking to together moderate the relationship between perceived victimization and adjustment. Survey data from a diverse sample of sixth-grade adolescents asking about their perceived levels of victimization, their global usage of internalizing and social support coping strategies, and their levels of depressive symptoms were used to evaluate how coping strategies in the face of peer victimization are associated with levels of adjustment.

Preliminary analyses were first conducted to examine bivariate associations between peer victimization, internalizing coping, social coping, and depressive symptoms. Given past research linking peer victimization to internalizing coping and poor adjustment (Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Juvonen et al., 2000; Nixon, 2014), we anticipated that peer victimization would be associated with more negative adjustment outcomes, or that those experiencing higher levels of victimization would report higher levels of depressive symptoms. We also expected that both types of coping would be associated with one another, or that higher rates of internalizing coping would be associated with higher rates of social support seeking (Causey & Dubow, 1992; Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002).

Following these analyses, we tested our primary research question regarding the combined moderation effects of social support and internalizing coping on the association between peer victimization and adjustment. We tested a three-way interaction between peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking to examine how utilization levels of both coping strategies are together associated with depressive symptoms in the face of peer victimization. Given that previous research has suggested that boys and girls differ in levels of internalizing coping, social support seeking, and adjustment following peer victimization experiences (Hampel et al., 2009; Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002; Tenenbaum et al., 2011), gender was initially included as an additional moderating variable to analyze whether any of the main effects or interactions varied between boys and girls.

Method

Participants

Data from this study were drawn from a larger ongoing longitudinal project on adolescent peer relations and development. Participants were 1,058 sixth-grade students (54.3% girls, 45.7% boys; X̅_age= 11.96; SD = .43) from six middle schools in Oregon, California, and Wisconsin. Schools were all selected on the basis of their ethnic diversity, such that no single group comprised more than 50% of a school, with the relative representations of the ethnic groups varying across schools. Across schools, 60% of students enrolled in sixth grade participated in the study. The sample was ethnically diverse, with participants identifying as Latinx (28.1%), White (29.2%), African American (12.9%), Asian (7.8%), Pacific Islander (2.6%), Native American (2.3%), Multiethnic (10.3%) or Other/Not reported (6.7%).

Measures

Perceived peer victimization

To measure the self-reported frequency by which adolescents perceived experiencing peer victimization, participants completed a modified version of the Global Estimates of Peer Victimization Frequency scale (Juvonen et al., 2000), a 15-item questionnaire asking participants to rate the frequency by which they experienced various relational and overt peer victimization situations, including name calling, exclusion, physical aggression, and threats (e.g., “How often has 1 or more students: Made fun or humiliated you in front of others?” 1 = has not happened this year; 4 = a couple times this week). The mean of these items (α = .94) was then calculated for each participant, with higher scores indicating more frequent experiences of peer victimization.

Coping

To measure adolescents’ coping strategies, students completed the Self-Report Coping Measure, modified from Causey and Dubow (1992), a 35-item questionnaire asking how the adolescent responds to and manages problems or stressful situations (e.g., “When you have a problem or when something doesn’t go your way, what do you usually do?”). For the current study, two subscales were used. The first, containing eight items (α =.75), assessed the extent by which adolescents engage in internalizing coping (e.g.,“I worry that others will think badly of me”; 1 = Always; 5 = Never). The second subscale, also containing eight items (α = .88), measured participants’ degree of social support seeking, or tendency to seek out help and advice from another. This subscale largely gauged adolescents’ degree of instrumental, or problem-focused support seeking (six items; e.g., “I ask a family member for advice”; 1 = Always; 5 = Never), with two items also asking about their level of emotional support seeking (e.g., “I talk to somebody about how it made me feel”; 1 = Always; 5 = Never). These items for both subscales were reverse-coded and then averaged such that higher scores indicated greater utilization of the coping strategy.

Depressive symptoms

A 10-item short form of the Children’s Depressive Inventory (Kovacs, 1992) was used to gauge adolescents’ levels of depressive symptoms (e.g., “How have you felt in the past two weeks?” 0 = I am sad once in a while; 1 = I am sad many times; 2 = I am sad all the time; α =.84).

Procedure

Prior to data collection, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of each of the Principal Investigator’s affiliated institutions approved this study. Surveys were administered in the adolescents’ classrooms during the spring term of their sixth-grade year. Participants were provided with consent forms for their parents to read and sign before the day of the survey and were also asked to provide signed assent on the day of the study. Participants received $5 for returning a signed consent form (either providing or declining consent), and students who participated in the study received an additional $15. Payments were made either directly to the student or to the student’s class for collective use, depending on the school’s desires. The survey took approximately 50 minutes to complete. Students were told that their individual responses were kept confidential.

Results

Preliminary Results

Prior to examining the interactions between peer victimization and coping on adjustment, bivariate correlations between peer victimization, both coping variables, and depressive symptoms were calculated. As shown in Table 1, higher levels of peer victimization were modestly negatively correlated with social support seeking, and positively correlated with internalizing coping and depressive symptoms. In turn, internalizing coping was also positively associated with depressive symptoms while social support seeking predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms. Internalizing coping and social support seeking were also modestly correlated, supporting the notion that adolescents may employ both positive and negative coping strategies simultaneously.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Between Peer Victimization, Coping Variables, and Depressive Symptoms.

Variable	1	2	3	4
1. Peer Victimization Frequency	—
2. Internalizing Coping	.32***	—
3. Social Support Seeking	−.08*	.19***	—
4. Depressive Symptoms	.43***	.43***	−.15***	—
X̅	1.41	2.50	3.09	0.31
SD	.58	.84	.99	.34

p < .05. ***p < .001.

A series of independent samples t tests was conducted to test if boys and girls differed in each construct. As shown in Table 2, there was no difference in mean levels of peer victimization between boys and girls. However, girls reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than boys, as well as higher levels of internalizing coping and social support seeking. A mixed ANOVA was then conducted to assess within-person differences in levels of the two forms of coping, and whether this association varied by gender. On average, participants reported utilizing social support seeking more often than internalizing coping, F(1, 763) = 193.02, p < .001; however, this within-person difference did not vary by gender, F(1, 763) = .001, p = .98, indicating that both boys and girls reported higher levels of social support seeking than internalizing coping.

Table 2.

Independent Samples t Tests Showing Gender Differences in All Study Variables.

	Girls		Boys		t Value
Variable	X̅	SD	X̅	SD	t Value
Peer Victimization Frequency	1.42	0.57	1.40	0.58	0.53
Internalizing Coping	2.63	0.84	2.35	0.82	4.61***
Social Support Seeking	3.23	0.94	2.95	1.02	3.92***
Depressive Symptoms	0.36	0.37	0.24	0.30	4.94***

p < .05. ***p < .001.

Interactions Between Peer Victimization, Internalizing Coping, and Social Support on Depressive Symptoms

To examine the interactions between victimization and coping on adjustment, a hierarchical regression analysis predicting depressive symptoms was first conducted in which gender, peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support coping were all entered as predictors (step 1), as were all two- and three-way interactions (steps 2 and 3, respectively). The final step of the regression analysis included a four-way interaction between gender, peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking. All variables were centered prior to the creation of interaction terms. The four-way interaction was not significant (B = −.05, SE = .03, p = .12), and so, for parsimony, it was dropped from the final model.

Table 3 shows the third step of the regression model, including all main effects and two- and three-way interactions. As shown, there were significant main effects of gender, peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking predicting depressive symptoms. There were also significant two-way interactions between peer victimization and gender, and peer victimization and internalizing coping. No three-way interactions including gender were significant, but there was a significant three-way interaction between peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking.

Table 3.

Multivariate Regression Results Showing Main and Interaction Effects of Gender, Peer Victimization, Internalizing Coping, and Social Support Seeking on Depressive Symptoms.

Predictor	B	SE	β	t Value
(Constant)	.25	.02		15.29***
Gender	.10	.02	.15	4.78***
Peer Victimization	.14	.03	.23	4.54***
Internalizing Coping	.12	.02	.29	6.00***
Social Support Seeking	−.06	.02	−.17	−3.57***
Gender × Peer Victimization	.09	.04	.11	2.09*
Gender × Internalizing Coping	.04	.03	.07	1.47
Gender × Social Support Seeking	−.01	.02	−.03	−0.64
Peer Victimization × Internalizing Coping	.08	.03	.14	2.54*
Peer Victimization × Social Support Seeking	−.03	.03	−.06	−1.17
Internalizing × Social Support Seeking	−.02	.02	−.06	−1.34
Gender × Victimization × Internalizing Coping	−.06	.04	−.09	−1.62
Gender × Victimization × Social Support	−.04	.03	−.05	−1.11
Gender × Internalizing Coping × Social Support	−.02	.02	−.04	−0.85
Peer Victimization × Internalizing × Social Support	−.04	.02	−.09	−2.51*

Note. Gender was coded as 0 = boys and 1 = girls. Shown is step 3 of the hierarchical regression model.

p < .05. ***p < .001.

To further understand the significant three-way interaction between peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support, follow-up analyses were conducted in which the sample was split according to whether participants scored one standard deviation above or below the mean of internalizing coping. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine the moderating effect of social support in the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms separately for these two groups (i.e., those who are high vs. low on internalizing coping). In correspondence with the significant predictors in the first analysis, gender was controlled for as a main effect and in its interaction with peer victimization. First, gender was entered as a predictor (step 1), followed by the main effects of peer victimization and social support seeking (step 2), and two-way interactions between gender and peer victimization, and peer victimization and social support (step 3). Each of these variables was centered for each internalizing coping group prior to the creation of the interaction terms.

As shown in the left half of Table 4, among participants who endorsed using internalizing coping more frequently, peer victimization was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, and social support seeking was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Gender was not a significant main effect, and neither was its interaction with peer victimization, indicating that peer victimization impacted boys and girls similarly among those who were already at higher risk of depressive symptoms through higher levels of internalizing coping. Most notably, as shown in Figure 1, while high scores on internalizing coping were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms overall, the interaction between peer victimization and social support indicates that support seeking acted as a buffer against higher levels of depressive symptoms for participants experiencing peer victimization.

Table 4.

Multivariate Regression Results Showing Main Effects of Gender, Peer Victimization, and Social Support Seeking and the Interaction Between Peer Victimization and Social Support on Depressive Symptoms for Participants Scoring High and Low on Internalizing Coping.

Predictor	High internalizing				Low internalizing
Predictor	B	SE	β	t Value	B	SE	β	t Value
(Constant)	.53	.07		6.26***	.14	.03		4.32***
Gender	.11	.09	.11	1.31	.09	.05	.17	1.90
Peer Victimization	.29	.09	.48	3.44***	.21	.10	.25	2.04*
Social Support Seeking	−.13	.04	−.30	−3.60***	−.01	.02	−.03	−0.30
Gender × Peer Victimization	−.09	.10	−.12	−0.86	.39	.20	.20	1.97*
Peer Victimization × Social Support Seeking	−.16	.04	−.31	−3.80***	.00	.08	.01	0.06

Note. Gender was coded as 0 = boys and 1 = girls. Shown is the final step of the hierarchical regression model.

p < .05. ***p < .001.

Figure 1.

Interaction between peer victimization and social support for participants scoring high on internalizing coping (upper graph) and low on internalizing coping (lower graph).

In the low internalizing group, peer victimization was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, as shown in the right half of Table 4. A significant gender by peer victimization interaction indicated that this association was stronger for girls than for boys. In contrast with those who scored high on internalizing, the main effect of social support was not significant, nor was the interaction between victimization and social support seeking. Thus, as displayed in Figure 1, unlike those who reported high levels of internalizing coping, participants low on internalizing coping had lower levels of depressive symptoms overall, and social support did not act as a buffer against depressive symptoms in the face of peer victimization in the way it did for adolescents who scored high on internalizing coping.

Discussion

This study aimed to assess how the use of social support and internalizing coping together moderate the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms. Given adolescent coping strategies have often been conceptualized as either approach or avoidance coping strategies (Fields & Prinz, 1997; Herman-Stabl et al., 1995; Roth & Cohen, 1986), previous research has almost exclusively analyzed the impacts of these strategies separately, particularly when analyzing their interactions with peer-related stressors (e.g., Ma et al., 2018; Visconti & Troop-Gordon, 2010). Thus, our goal in the present study was to examine whether examining the use of both types of coping in conjunction with each other might yield a richer understanding of how adolescents’ coping strategies relate to adjustment following peer victimization. A particular focus was placed on analyzing the protective role of social support seeking, an approach-oriented coping strategy (Compas et al., 2001), when employed along with internalizing, an avoidance coping strategy often associated with poor adjustment outcomes (e.g., Garnefski & Kraaij, 2014; Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002).

Interactions Between Peer Victimization and Coping

Consistent with previous research linking peer victimization with worsened adjustment (Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Juvonen et al., 2000; Nixon, 2014), peer victimization was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. As anticipated, internalizing coping was also associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and interacted with peer victimization to exacerbate depressive symptoms for those experiencing higher levels of peer victimization. However, social support seeking significantly interacted with internalizing coping to buffer the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms. In particular, we found that social support protected participants who scored high on internalizing coping from the negative consequences of peer victimization on depressive symptoms. This suggests that adolescents who have higher tendencies to ruminate over negative experiences but also seek out the support of others are better able to manage stressful peer situations compared with adolescents who internalize their experience without seeking out help from others. Thus, unlike research focusing exclusively on the negative impact of internalizing coping on adjustment (Barchia & Bussey, 2010; Garnefski & Kraaij, 2014), these results suggest that the relationship between peer victimization, maladaptive coping, and adjustment is more nuanced, with internalizing coping not inevitably leading to maladjustment. Rather, our results showed that adolescents with higher tendencies to ruminate benefited significantly from going to others for support with negative experiences.

This finding conflicts with some past findings in which social support seeking increased internal distress following peer victimization (e.g., Visconti & Troop-Gordon, 2010). This might be because the scale used to measure social support seeking in the present study largely contained items asking about adolescents’ tendencies to seek help and advice rather than emotional comfort. It has been argued that social support seeking can be problem-focused, involving help and advice seeking intended to help solve problems, or emotion-focused and aimed at obtaining support for experienced emotional distress, with the former more often associated with reduced levels of distress (Carver et al., 1989). Thus, it might be useful for future studies to further examine this distinction in relation to how each form of social support seeking interacts with other coping strategies and if emotion-focused support seeking is associated with reduced or worsened distress.

Interestingly, the buffering effect of social support seeking on the association between victimization and depressive symptoms was only observed for adolescents who scored high on internalizing coping. While higher peer victimization still predicted worse adjustment for those low on internalizing coping, social support was not a significant main effect on depression for this group, nor did it interact with peer victimization to buffer its negative effects. This result is likely due to the overall lower levels of depressive symptoms among those low in internalizing coping compared with the high internalizing group; perhaps social support is exclusively protective when risk for maladjustment is higher. Furthermore, this result points to the complexity of the effects of coping strategies and how one type of coping may have greater utility when used in concurrence with other coping strategies. This also provides evidence that individual coping strategies alone do not fully explain the complex relationship between victimization and adjustment or maladjustment. Rather, each form of coping is just one factor that may exacerbate or buffer the negative effects associated with adverse peer experiences.

Despite mean-level gender differences in both coping variables and depressive symptoms, the four-way interaction between gender, peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking was not significant, suggesting that the combined roles of internalizing coping and social support seeking on the relationship between peer victimization and depressive symptoms operate similarly for both boys and girls. In fact, in the main analysis, gender only operated as a moderator in the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms, with the association being stronger for girls than for boys. This likely reflects the higher levels of depressive symptoms for girls in our sample compared with boys, a finding that is consistent with previous research on gender and depressive symptoms (e.g., Galambos et al., 2004). However, in our follow-up analyses, this interaction was present only among participants scoring low on internalizing coping; among participants high on internalizing coping, the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms did not vary according to gender. Similarly, no interactions including gender and social support were significant, indicating that the buffering effects of social support were present for both girls and boys, contradictory to some previous studies finding gender differences in the relationship between peer victimization, social support, and adjustment (e.g., Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002). However, care should be taken in the interpretation of these nonsignificant gender findings as it is possible that with a larger sample, there would be more power to identify gender differences in the processes explored here.

Implications and Future Directions

This study demonstrates how the experience of peer victimization and the use of maladaptive coping strategies do not always lead to the poor outcomes often associated with each. Specifically, the risk for poor adjustment following peer victimization was lower among adolescents with higher tendencies to approach others for support, and this was particularly apparent among adolescents who also report the greater usage of internalizing coping strategies. While these findings add to existing theories on the roles that specific approach versus avoidance coping strategies have on adolescent adjustment, they also highlight the utility of analyzing the combined interactions between approach and avoidance strategies by affirming previous findings suggesting that these coping strategies are typically not used in isolation of each other (e.g., Causey & Dubow, 1992; Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002; Wright et al., 2010).

While this study provides a novel analysis of the ways by which coping mechanisms can work together to impact adjustment among young adolescents experiencing peer victimization, it has limitations. First, our measurements are self-reported and from a single time point; research indicates that there is a reciprocal relationship between victimization and adjustment such that the negative outcomes associated with peer victimization are, in turn, associated with further victimization experiences that lead to lasting poor adjustment outcomes through adolescence (Forbes et al., 2019; Reijntjes et al., 2010). Future studies should examine the interactions between peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking at multiple time points in adolescence to assess whether this pattern continues to persist, and whether social support still has the potential to protect adolescents as they transition into high school.

Second, our measure for social support coping only broadly gauges adolescents’ tendencies to seek out the support of others and did not measure the amount of support available to them or the amount of support received. Still, for those who benefited from this strategy, it reflects the importance of having stable and available people in adolescents’ lives whom they can feel comfortable approaching for advice and assistance regarding negative peer experiences (Cicognani, 2011). As shown by Davidson and Demaray (2007), support from different sources (e.g., friends, family members, teachers) may benefit boys and girls differently. Thus, it may be helpful to further explore if social support from different sources provides an even more nuanced understanding of the impact of social support seeking and the ways in which coping strategies work together. Similarly, while internalizing coping and social support seeking are commonly used coping strategies in early adolescence and are often associated with each other (Causey & Dubow, 1992; Kochenderfer-Ladd & Skinner, 2002), future studies should examine the combined impact of these with other coping strategies to yield an even more comprehensive analysis of how multiple forms of coping together interact with peer victimization to influence adjustment. In addition, despite the significant protective effect social support seeking had for adolescents experiencing peer victimization, we found a negative correlation between global social support seeking and peer victimization. This suggests that adolescents experiencing more frequent peer victimization are less likely to seek out support for stressors or, alternatively, that those with positive relationships who are able to seek out support are less likely to experience peer victimization. While this finding aligns with past research (e.g., Barchia & Bussey, 2010), it would be useful for future studies to further examine why adolescents facing peer victimization are less inclined to seek social support. Given that those experiencing peer victimization who did seek social support more frequently benefited from doing so, understanding barriers to seeking support among peer victimized adolescents can help foster an environment in which adolescents experiencing peer-related stress can feel more comfortable obtaining social support.

Although peer victimization is a pervasive and harmful stressor among adolescents, our study did not examine the impacts of coping in relation to other types of stressors. While research examining the interactions between other forms of victimization and coping has yielded similar findings to those on peer victimization, most research has similarly limited analyses to focusing on one form of coping at once. For instance, research on polyvictimization, or the experience of multiple forms of victimization (e.g., peer victimization and exposure to family violence), has found that adolescents facing multiple types of stressors have fewer coping resources and are more likely to employ maladaptive strategies including internalizing coping (e.g., Zerach & Elklit, 2017). Whereas some research has found social support to be an effective buffer for adolescents experiencing polyvictimization (Guerra et al., 2016), other research on adolescent victims of severe domestic violence has found social support to be ineffective at reducing stress levels (Muller et al., 2000). Thus, it may be useful for this study to be replicated to examine the interaction of different coping strategies among adolescents who face stressors other than peer victimization.

Despite these limitations, this study reveals how adolescents’ usage of internalizing coping does not necessarily lead to poor outcomes even among those who experience peer victimization. Instead, a more holistic approach to understanding the variety of coping strategies adolescents may use revealed that adolescents who internalize their experiences have reduced risk for maladjustment when they also seek out support from others. These results help to reconcile past conflicting findings about the role social support has among adolescents experiencing peer victimization and further highlight the value of social support for coping with adversity. Continued research on the complex factors that influence adjustment outcomes following negative peer experiences can further efforts to help support adolescents as they navigate their peer worlds.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation: NSF BCS-1147593.

ORCID iDs

Melissa R. Witkow

Adrienne Nishina

Author Biographies

Allie M. Spiekerman’s research interests include adolescent stress, coping, and adjustment. Particularly, she is interested in the social and cognitive factors that influence well-being and the interplay between adolescent’s peer experiences and responses to stress.

Melissa R. Witkow studies the intersection between peer relationships and academic motivation and achievement during adolescence, and how adolescents from diverse backgrounds negotiate the demands in their lives.

Adrienne Nishina’s research focuses on adolescent peer relationships and ethnicity within broader school social contexts using both short- and longer-term longitudinal methodologies. Specifically, she examines individual factors and contextual conditions under which negative peer experiences predict greater psychosocial, physical, and academic maladjustment. She also studies the interplay between ethnic diversity in peer groups and adolescent functioning.

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