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Fifth-Grade Children’s Daily Experiences of Peer Victimization and Negative Emotions: Moderating Effects of Sex and Peer Rejection

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Abstract

This study examined the relations of fifth-grade children’s (181 boys and girls) daily experiences of peer victimization with their daily negative emotions. Children completed daily reports of peer victimization and negative emotions (sadness, anger, embarrassment, and nervousness) on up to eight school days. The daily peer victimization checklist was best represented by five factors: physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, property attacks, and social rebuff. All five types were associated with increased negative daily emotions, and several types were independently linked to increased daily negative emotions, particularly physical victimization. Girls demonstrated greater emotional reactivity in sadness to social manipulation than did boys, and higher levels of peer rejection were linked to greater emotional reactivity to multiple types of victimization. Sex and peer rejection also interacted, such that greater rejection was a stronger indicator of emotional reactivity to victimization in boys than in girls.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. We would like to thank Jean-Phillipe Laurenceau for his statistical consultation, as well as all of the project’s undergraduate research assistants. Most of all, we appreciate the children, parents, teachers, and principals who made this project possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Arcadia University, 124 Boyer Hall, 450 S. Easton Road, Glenside, PA, 19038, USA

    Michael T. Morrow & Amanda K. Thomson

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Julie A. Hubbard

  3. Behavior Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Lydia J. Barhight

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  1. Michael T. Morrow
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  2. Julie A. Hubbard
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  3. Lydia J. Barhight
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  4. Amanda K. Thomson
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Correspondence to Michael T. Morrow.

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Morrow, M.T., Hubbard, J.A., Barhight, L.J. et al. Fifth-Grade Children’s Daily Experiences of Peer Victimization and Negative Emotions: Moderating Effects of Sex and Peer Rejection. J Abnorm Child Psychol 42, 1089–1102 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9870-0

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