Relational Victimization and the Development of Psychopathology in Middle to Late Childhood

Abstract

Peer victimization is the frequency in which a child is a recipient of aggressive acts from their peers over time; further, two main subtypes of peer victimization have been organized as physical or non-physical. A majority of past studies focused on physical forms of peer victimization, however more recent studies are examining the non-physical forms of peer victimization also referred to as indirect, social, and relational victimization. For cohesiveness, throughout this article relational victimization will be utilized to describe when a child has been a recipient of peer relational aggression. Relational victimization can be direct or indirect, overt or covert and is defined as peer treatment in which the manipulation of interpersonal relationships primarily serves as the agent of harm. This article will focus on identifying the various characteristics of relational aggression and the prevalence of relational victimization in middle to late childhood, when children are 6 to 12 years old. Relational victimization will be examined through a socially derived theoretical framework in order to highlight the correlation between relational victimization and developing psychopathology.