The long-term consequences of peer victimization on physical and psychological health: A longitudinal study

Purpose This study examined whether social and physical peer victimization in adolescence led to changes in psychological and physical health outcomes. Methods One hundred and twenty adolescents (boys = 54) and a parent completed measures of peer victimization and health approximately 2 years apart. Results Results indicated that both social and physical victimization were related to increases in the frequency and severity of health problems over the assessment period. Conclusions Increases in social, but not physical victimization, were related to more internalizing problems as well as greater frequency and severity of health problems at the second assessment. Anxious depression and severity of health problems at the first assessment were related to increases in social, but not physical forms of victimization over the 2-year period. These results continue to shed light on the notion that being peer victimized is not a normal part of life and is not necessarily something that adolescents will reconcile with time.