Dysregulated Negative Effects Of Peer Victimization

Secondly, children’s emotional reactivity is effected by peer victimization. According to Rosen, Milich, and Harris 2012, for a subset of children, victimization is a stable and chronic phenomenon. Approximately 10% of children report being victimized by peers on a regular basis, and stability coefficients for victimization have been reported ranging from .80 over a period of months to .41 over a year. Chronic peer victims may experience serious short- and long-term consequences including internalizing and externalizing disorders, school absenteeism, academic dysfunction, and increased suicidal thoughts, and peer victimization has been recognized as a major public health problem of childhood. This article will use the terms “dysregulated negative

Studies have indicated that children who demonstrate more emotional distress in social interactions are more likely to be rejected and targeted for harassment than their peers. Dysregulated reactivity may increase the likelihood that children will be targeted by peers. Children with difficulty regulating distress may be more likely to both be seen as socially acceptable targets for harassment and have fewer high-quality friendships to protect them against victimization. Similarly, poorly regulated and highly reactive children are more likely to engage in behaviors that irritate their peers and lead to conflicts. Chronic victimization by peers is a traumatic and distressing experience that has tremendous negative effects on children’s immediate and long-term academic, behavioral, and emotional well-being. The authors’ study suggested that chronically victimized children’s dysregulated negative emotional reactions lead them to feel emotionally overwhelmed in conflict and override their ability to engage in effective problem solving to avoid negative outcomes. That their distress in conflict situations is recognizable to observers only serves to further reward aggressors, increasing the likelihood of further victimization. These patterns and processes become entrenched, leading them to experience increasingly frequent victimization over time. While chronically victimized children are certainly not to blame for their emotional distress, it is essential that interventions account for their difficulties regulating emotions and coping with distress when engaged in social