National prevalence of peer victimization among young children with disabilities in the United States

Abstract

Peer victimization is a serious social problem that can negatively affect children's psychosocial development and school adjustment, and may have lasting effects for victims. The rates of peer victimization among preschool children with disabilities, however, are unknown. This paper examines the prevalence and nature of peer victimization among children with disabilities in school settings using data from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (N = 1270). One-quarter to one-third of preschool children with disabilities experienced some form of peer victimization in school. Peer victimization increased over the 2003–2006 period (21% in Year 1, 25% in Year 2, 30% in Year 3), and there were also substantial rates of co-occurring types of victimization among children with disabilities. These results suggest the urgent need to provide bullying prevention strategies for children with disabilities—strategies which have been previously neglected in the context of school-based bullying prevention and intervention programs.