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It Gets Better: Attenuated Associations Between Latent Classes of Peer Victimization and Longitudinal Psychosocial Outcomes in Four Low-Resource Countries

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Abstract

Very few studies of peer victimization have been conducted in low-resource countries, where cultural and contextual differences are likely to influence the dynamics of these experiences in ways that may reduce the generalizability of findings of the larger body of literature. Most studies in these settings are also subject to multiple design limitations that restrict our ability to understand the dynamics of peer victimization experiences. Person-centered approaches such as latent class analysis are an improvement on more traditional modeling approaches as they allow exploration of patterns of victimization experiences. The goal of the current study was to examine associations between patterns of peer victimization in adolescence and both concurrent and longitudinal psychosocial adjustment. Data were included for 3536 youth (49.6% female) in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam to examine associations between adolescent peer victimization and indicators of poor psychosocial adjustment. Previously derived latent classes of peer victimization based on youth self-report of past-year exposure to nine forms of peer victimization at age 15 were used to predict self-reported emotional difficulties, self-rated health, and subjective wellbeing at ages 15 and 19 while controlling for sex. The findings show that at age 15, victimization was associated with higher emotional difficulties in all settings, lower subjective wellbeing in all except Peru, and lower self-rated health in Vietnam. At follow-up, all associations had attenuated and were largely non-significant. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these results. These findings illustrate the multifinality of outcomes of peer victimization, suggesting social and developmental influences for potential pathways of resilience that hold promise for informing interventions and supports in both low and high resource settings.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Ji Hoon Ryoo at the University of Virginia for consulting on the analytic approach.

Authors’ Contributions

A.J.N. conceived of the study design, performed the statistical analysis, and led the data interpretation and manuscript development. C.B.P., L.T., A.G., and J.B. participated in the study design, interpretation, and manuscript development. A.G. also assisted with the analytic approach. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

Funding support for AJN was provided by the NIMH Child Mental Health Services and Service Systems Research Training Grant (5T32MH019545-23).

Data Sharing and Declaration

The data used in this publication come from Young Lives, a 15-year study of the changing nature of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam (www.younglives.org.uk). Young Lives is funded by UK aid from the Department for International Development (DFID), with co-funding from Irish Aid. The views expressed here are those of the author(s). They are not necessarily those of Young Lives, the University of Oxford, DFID or other funders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Virginia Curry School of Education, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

    Amanda J. Nguyen & Catherine P. Bradshaw

  2. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Catherine P. Bradshaw, Alden Gross & Judith Bass

  3. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Lisa Townsend

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  1. Amanda J. Nguyen
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Correspondence to Amanda J. Nguyen.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Nguyen, A.J., Bradshaw, C.P., Townsend, L. et al. It Gets Better: Attenuated Associations Between Latent Classes of Peer Victimization and Longitudinal Psychosocial Outcomes in Four Low-Resource Countries. J Youth Adolescence 48, 372–385 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0935-1

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