Peer Victimization and Depressive Symptoms During Adolescence: Examining the Roles of Social Support and Internalizing Coping

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how two coping strategies together moderate the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment among young adolescents. Sixth-grade adolescents from California, Oregon, and Wisconsin (N = 1,058) self-reported peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and their utilization of social support seeking and internalizing coping. A regression analysis showed a significant three-way interaction between peer victimization, internalizing coping, and social support seeking in predicting depressive symptoms. Further analyses revealed that social support seeking only buffered the negative effects of peer victimization for participants who scored high on internalizing coping. Despite mean-level gender differences in these variables, gender did not moderate this association, suggesting that social support is an effective buffer against depressive symptoms following peer victimization for both boys and girls. These results suggest that attending to the variety of coping strategies adolescents employ simultaneously will help further our understanding of peer victimization outcomes.