Peer-victimization and mental health problems in adolescents : are parental and school support protective?

  • The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency and effects of peer-victimization on mental health problems among adolescents. Parental and school support were assumed as protective factors that might interact with one another in acting as buffers for adolescents against the risk of peer-victimization. Besides these protective factors, age and gender were additionally considered as moderating factors. The Social and Health Assessment survey was conducted among 986 students aged 11-18 years in order to assess peer-victimization, risk and protective factors and mental health problems. For mental health problems, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used. Effects of peer-victimization on mental health problems were additionally compared with normative SDQ data in order to obtain information about clinically relevant psychopathology in our study sample. Results of this study show that peer-victimization carries a serious risk for mental health problems in adolescents. School support is effective in both male and female adolescents by acting as a buffer against the effect of victimization, and school support gains increasing importance in more senior students. Parental support seems to be protective against maladjustment, especially in peer-victimized girls entering secondary school. Since the effect of peer-victimization can be reduced by parental and school support, educational interventions are of great importance in cases of peer-victimization.

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Metadaten
Author:Christina StadlerORCiDGND, Julia Feifel, Sonja RohrmannGND, Robert VermeirenORCiD, Fritz PoustkaGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-266074
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-010-0174-5
ISSN:1573-3327
ISSN:0009-398X
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20221691
Parent Title (English):Child psychiatry & human development
Publisher:Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
Place of publication:Dordrecht
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2012
Date of first Publication:2010/03/10
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2012/10/16
Tag:Mental health problems; Parent support; Protective factors; School support; Victimization
Volume:41
Issue:4
Page Number:16
First Page:371
Last Page:386
Note:
Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com . Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
HeBIS-PPN:358233925
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell 3.0