Emotional competence and peer victimization in adolescence: A study of inner city youth

The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between the development of emotional skills and peer victimization during adolescence. Using a one-year, longitudinal study design, four theoretically-based models depicting emotional pathways leading to peer victimization in adolescence were tested. Models A and B hypothesized that poor emotional awareness and reluctance to express emotion would be associated with the "under-regulation", or higher levels of emotional expression, of anger and sadness. Furthermore, emotional "under-regulation" was expected to predict experiences of overt and relational peer victimization. Models C and D explored similar relationships; however, "over-regulation", or lower levels of emotional expression, of anger and sadness were used as predictors of peer victimization. Participants included 319 pairs of predominantly African American adolescents (53.0% female, M = 12.06 yrs.) in grades 5 and 8 along with their maternal caregivers living in high violence areas of an urban city. Using structural equation modeling, results for Model A showed that poor emotional awareness was associated with "under-regulation" of sadness and sadness "under-regulation" predicted both relational and overt victimization. Based on these significant pathways, a meditational relationship was explored and findings suggested that poor emotional awareness may directly contribute to peer victimization. Similarly, for Model B, "under-regulation" of anger predicted both overt and relational victimization. Thus, adolescents who display higher levels of anger and sadness expression could be at risk for victimization by their peers. When the Models A and B were run constrained and unconstrained by gender, the unconstrained models were favored indicating path differences among males and females. For the Models C and D including anger and sadness "under-regulation" as predictors of peer victimization, expressive reluctance was associated with "over-regulation" of anger and sadness; however, "over-regulation" of emotion did not contribute to peer victimization. In summary, findings suggest that emotional awareness and regulation skills contribute to peer victimization in adolescence. Specifically, adolescents who have poor emotional awareness and/or display higher levels of negative emotions may be at risk for victimization by their peers.