Peer Abuse Research Articles

Prevalence and characteristics of sexual abuse in a national sample of Swedish seventeen-year-old boys and girls

The aims of this study, which was part of a survey on adolescent sexual behaviour, were to investigate adolescents' experience of child sexual abuse and to present possible abuse-related problems. Representative samples of 2% of Sweden's 17-y-old male and female students and school non-attenders were selected in a two-step procedure. In all, 1943 students and 210 school non-attenders answered a self-administered anonymous questionnaire, distributed by school nurses. Six out of 170 questions dealt with personal experiences of child sexual abuse, i.e. age at onset, frequency of abuse and relationship to the offender. Peer abuse was excluded by the definitions used. The overall response rate was 92.2% for students and 44.2% for school dropouts. Among male and female students, 3.1% and 11.2%, respectively, acknowledged sexual abuse, 2.3% and 7.1%, respectively, when exhibitionism was excluded. Mean age at onset was 9.1 y (SD 4.3) for boys and 9.0 y (SD 3.9) for girls; 1.2% of the boys and 3.1% of the girls reported abusive oral, vaginal and/or anal intercourse. Suicide attempts or other acts of self-harm were reported by 33.3% of the male students reporting abuse and by 5.1%(p <0.001) of those who had not been abused, and by 30.4% of the abused student girls compared to 9.1% of the non-abused (p < 0.001). Sleep and eating disorders, use of alcohol at an early age and/or experimentation with illicit drugs and consensual coitarche before age 15 y was reported significantly more often by abused than non-abused girls (p < 0.001, differences not found among the student boys). Of school non-attenders, 4% of the boys and 28% of the girls reported sexual abuse. Of the abused girls, 49% reported abusive vaginal intercourse and 64% reported self-destructive behaviour or suicide attempts. No abused boys and few abused girls had confided in a teacher, health professional or social worker. Results from the student sample should be interpreted as markers of “minimum prevalence”, as female school non-attenders report significantly higher prevalence of sexual abuse. Potential high-risk groups are better included in prevalence investigations of child sexual abuse. The fact that so few adolescents confided in “professionals” about the abuse, despite having severe symptoms and signs of distress, underlines the need to address sexual abuse when recording the social, medical and psychiatric histories of adolescents.

The power of friendship: protection against an escalating cycle of peer victimization.

This study examined 2 aspects of friendship (presence and perceived qualities of a best friend) as moderators of behavioral antecedents and outcomes of peer victimization. A total of 393 children (188 boys and 205 girls) in the 4th and 5th grades (mean age = 10 years 7 months) participated during each of 2 waves of data collection in this 1-year longitudinal study. Results indicated that teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors predicted increases in peer-reported victimization, but the relation of internalizing behaviors to increases in victimization was attenuated for children with a protective friendship. Victimization predicted increases in internalizing and externalizing behaviors but only for children without a mutual best friendship. Results highlight the importance of peer friendships in preventing an escalating cycle of peer abuse.

Relational and overt forms of peer victimization: a multiinformant approach.

This research addressed 2 limitations of past research on peer victimization: the tendency to study boys only and the tendency to focus on forms of peer maltreatment that are common in boys' peer groups (victimization through overt aggression) but occur much less frequently in girls' peer groups. Peer- and self-report instruments were used to assess a relational form of victimization in addition to the overt form that has been the focus of past research. Results showed that girls were more relationally victimized, whereas boys were more overtly victimized. Both forms of victimization were shown to predict concurrent sociopsychological adjustment problems significantly (e.g., peer rejection, loneliness) beyond aggression. Victims identified through a combination of self- and peer-reports were particularly maladjusted.

Clinical and cultural issues in diagnosing and treating child victims of peer abuse.

Examined are clinical and cultural issues in assessing and treating child victims of peer abuse. Profiles for both victims and perpetrators are discussed as are clinical patterns that may emerge in adulthood. Clinical trauma accommodation is discussed to offer the processing and adaptation to peer victimization. A clinical algorithm is discussed to provide the clinician with a pathway for assessment, treatment and follow-up for children who experience peer victimization.

Does low self-regard invite victimization?

Two hypotheses were tested. The first was that low self-regard contributes over time to victimization by peers. The second was that behavioral vulnerabilities (e.g., physical weakness, manifest anxiety, poor social skills) are more likely to lead to victimization over time when children have low self-regard than when they are "self-protected" by healthy self-regard. Participants were 189 third-through 7th-grade boys and girls; data were collected in the fall and the spring of the school year. Both hypotheses were supported, especially when self-regard was assessed in terms of self-perceived peer social competence. In addition, the experience of being victimized led to diminished self-regard over time. Poor self-concept may play a central role in a vicious cycle that perpetuates and solidifies a child's status as a victim of peer abuse.

Sexual abuse perpetrated by men with intellectual disabilities: a comparative study

This paper compares cases of sexual abuse of adults with intellectual disabilities, reported across the South East of England, which were perpetrated by men with intellectual disabilities, with those committed by other male perpetrators. The comparison provides some support for the findings of other studies, which have suggested that men with intellectual disabilities offend against more male victims than non-disabled sex offenders and that their offences are somewhat less serious, but otherwise indicates common patterns of abusive behaviour across this divide but differential service responses and support for victims. So called 'peer abuse' is a widespread problem which service agencies have failed to address: repeated offences are frequent and lack of appropriate intervention is the norm.

Cooperativeness and Bully/Victim Problems Among Australian Schoolchildren

The relationship was examined between the self-reported cooperativeness of Australian secondary-school students and their involvement in peer abuse at school, both as bullies and as victims. An 18-item Likert-type measure, the Cooperativeness Scale, was developed, and its reliability and concurrent validity were supported by the results of its application to two samples of Australian students (N = 176 and N = 763, respectively) attending different coeducational secondary schools, the first in a predominantly middle-class area and the second in a lower class socioeconomic area. At both schools, girls scored higher in cooperativeness than boys. Students at the second school also anonymously completed multiple measures of the extent of their involvement during the current year in bullying, victimization, or both. As predicted, correlations and multiple regression analyses supported the hypothesis that relatively low levels of cooperativeness were characteristic, not only of both boys and girls who engaged in bullying, but also, to a lesser extent, of those who were frequently victimized by their peers at school.

Bullying or Peer Abuse at School: Facts and Intervention

Bullying or Peer Abuse at School: Facts and Intervention

Peer abuse or bullying at school: Basic facts and a school-based intervention programme

Peer abuse or bullying at school: Basic facts and a school-based intervention programme

A Qualitative Study of Peer Abuse and Its Effects: Theoretical and Empirical Implications

Peer is an underestimated and neglected social problem (e.g., Besag, 1989; Roland & Munthe, 1989; Tattum & Lane, 1989), usually approached in psychology as aggression (bullying) as well as victimization and rejection (e.g., Asher & Coie, 1990; Asher & Wheeler, 1985; Pepler & Rubin, 1991). Peer has rarely been analyzed from a sociocultural perspective (Olweus, 1991), and is not generally used as a distinct concept. It is not yet an accepted topic of research in itself nor of concerted social policy in most Western countries (Kovarik, 1992, p. 37). In contrast, is generating much research, clinical work, and government funding. More often than not, the type of that is targeted is the of a by his/her parents or by other adults such as stepparents or mothers' boyfriends. For instance, a library search of the key words peer abuse yielded only six references; child abuse yielded 210 references from 1991 to 1993 alone, mainly parent related, and not a single one pertained to by age-mates. Most books on child-welfare policies fail to include (e.g., Costin, Bell, & Downs, 1991). Currently, the primary focus of the literature on family and rests on the role played by parents in their children's lives. This unidirectional causality model still forms the core of the publications in the major psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and developmental journals despite decades of advances in psychology and sociology whereby children are studied as social actors, even affecting their parents (Bell & Harper, 1977; Rutter, 1982; Thomas & Chess, 1977), as coproducers of their own development (Belsky, Lerner, & Spanier, 1984; Bornstein, 1985; Lerner, 1982; Lerner & Busch-Rossnagel, 1981), as cocreators of their social environments (Corsaro & Eder, 1990; Morelli & Tronick, 1991, p. 111), and even as early as 1969, as socializers of their parents (Rheingold, 1969). These and other researchers direct our attention to the circular interactions between effect and parental effect (Amato & Ochiltree, 1986; Ambert, 1992; Bradbury & Fincham, 1990; Patterson, 1986). The concepts of socialization and prevent us from focusing on the fact that children have important sociological attributes (Qvortrup, 1991) and perform social functions extending beyond their mere psychologization. Children have agency (Thorne, 1987) and, as Alanen (1990) points out, the triangle of childhood, family, and socialization, takes place within accepted notions of the other two, so that we can rarely even imagine novel relations between the three components (p. 15). However, contemporary developments on several fronts have allowed for the growing recognition of children's active roles and of the larger environment which ultimately has a great influence on children (Bronfenbrenner, 1987; McLanahan & Davis, 1989; Skolnick, 1978, p. 331; Small & Eastman, 1991). Part of this environment is constituted by peers who are already recognized as having a great impact on children (e.g., Peterson & Rollins, 1987; Rubin & Ross, 1982). The importance of peers, however, has been neglected from the position of policy. Children are currently being socialized to recognize, resist, and report perpetrated by adults, but there is no parallel effort made with regard to abuse. Peer may be dismissed because it accords agency to children, rather than to adults only. It gives children a much more active role as social actors, taking children-as-abusers out of the usual purview of children-in-need-of-protection (Ennew, 1986). Peer does not fall within the current paradigms guiding child-welfare professionals. These paradigms largely focus on the family as a target for treatment and policing (Donzelot, 1979), and represent an extension of traditional socialization and developmental theories emphasizing the maternal role and the effect of parents on their children. …

Bullying and Student Distress: beneath the tip of the iceberg

A sample of 836 adolescent students, in their first year of secondary education, completed a 14‐item forced‐choice questionnaire to provide information on their exposure to first‐hand experience of bullying and a range of other life events. Analysis of the data revealed support for levels of physical abuse indicated in other surveys of English secondary students, but yielded the highest level of verbal abuse yet reported in a school‐based study. Much more peer abuse was reported at secondary level than had been linked to the primary phase of the students’ education. Males recorded a significantly higher incidence of exposure to physically loaded events and both sexes recorded that they had been exposed to a range of life events which extended far beyond bullying. The results are discussed in the light of the research literature on both bullying and life events, and suggestions for student support are provided.

Annie Get Your Gun 'Cause Help Ain't Comin': The Need for Constitutional Protection from Peer Abuse in Public Schools

Annie Get Your Gun 'Cause Help Ain't Comin': The Need for Constitutional Protection from Peer Abuse in Public Schools

Perceived Peer Abuse among College Students

(1987). Perceived Peer Abuse among College Students. NASPA Journal: Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 42-47.

The school: Liberator or censurer?

The community is faced with an increasing number of children suffering from social and emotional difficulties. As all children attend school, this is a highly suitable place to examine possible means of identifying and helping children suffering from social and emotional difficulties. For the last 20 years most schools have lagged in their adjustment to the full range of needs of students. They act as a censurer by: domination of academic requirements causing many to fail; failure to meet the expressed needs of children; inadequate teacher training; too little help given to children and often too late; uncoordinated assistance within the school or with community agencies; and by not reducing peer abuse. The school can play a significant role in child development, but for the child with adjustment difficulties coherent assistance is rarely offered. The school can liberate by: recognition of the needs of non-academic children; recognition of the affective needs of all; providing affective training for selected teachers; giving appropriate curriculum time for a programme in personal growth and social relationships; by developing a multidisciplinary community agency which interacts with the school. A model is proposed outlining how effective intervention will break and prevent the cycle of abusive behaviour. This programme proceeds sequentially through each grade. Basically it is one of effective student group interaction in the presence of a specially selected and trained group leader. Such a programme contributes to change in school philosophy, and increases the possibility of the child becoming a more adequate adult/parent. Negative emotional effects of bureaucracy and the Australian school institution on children are discussed. This paper looks critically at schools, outlines some ways in which such abuse is manifested and discusses how the schools can become factors in healing as well as preventing abuse.