Youth’s Expectations for Their Teacher’s Handling of Peer Victimization and Their Socioemotional Development

Abstract

Evidence suggests that children’s expectations for how their teacher responds to students’ aggression moderate concurrent links between peer victimization and adjustment. This study extends this work by examining these associations longitudinally. Youth (N = 366; 196 girls; $M_{\mathrm{age}}=9.25\mathrm{years}$ ) reported on their teacher’s use of five responses to peer victimization, two reflecting active intervention and three reflecting passive responses. Physical aggression, relational aggression, prosocial behavior, depressive symptoms, and anxiety were measured over two school years. Perceiving the teacher as contacting parents or separating students buffered the link between victimization and emotional maladjustment. Perceiving the teacher as advising independent coping or avoidance amplified links between victimization and behavioral problems. Some of these associations were sustained or emerged over time. These results underscore the potential importance of children’s perceptions of their teachers’ responses with peer victimization to their socioemotional development in early adolescence.