Peer victimization and social confidence in youth with disabilities

Abstract

With cross-lag mixture modeling we tested the direction of associations between peer victimization and social confidence over time for youth with developmental disabilities. We conducted secondary analysis on a subsample of 3188 youths from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS; three measurement waves over four years). The model revealed three classes. The first class had relatively high levels of peer victimization and comprised youths with varied disability classifications. The second and smallest class had high levels of peer victimization and more likelihood of having emotional disturbance. The third and largest class had relatively low peer victimization levels and greater proportions of older youths with learning disabilities. In the third class, more socially confident youths were less victimized by peers at subsequent waves, and peer victimization at Wave 1 predicted increased social confidence at Wave 3. Findings underscore the value of identifying factors that decrease risk for peer victimization or promote resilience.