Poly-Victimization and Peer Harassment Involvement in a Technological World

Abstract

This article explores the ways poly-victimized youth (those experiencing multiple different types of victimization over the course of 1 year) use technology to interact with peers. Particular attention is given to the peer harassment victimization and perpetration experiences of poly-victimized youth compared with less victimized and non-victimized youth-both overall and through technology. Data were collected as part of the Technology Harassment Victimization (THV) study; a national survey of 791 youth, ages 10 to 20 across the United States. Study results document the heightened risks that poly-victimized youth experience when interacting with peers. Low and high poly-victimized youth were both at significantly greater risk of being dual victims and perpetrators of peer harassment when compared with non-victimized youth even after taking into account other potentially explanatory factors. This was not found to be the case for less victimized youth. This was true for high poly-victims and technology-involved harassment risk as well. There were indications that poly-victimized youth were interacting with peers in more intense and risky ways in general using new technology. The increase in attention to poly-victimization in recent years has importantly identified the detrimental role that experiencing different forms of victimization have on youth. This study not only adds to that literature but suggests that there is an opportunity to interrupt additional victimization by understanding how poly-victimized youth interact with peers before and during adolescence. Although preliminary, the differences in technology use by poly-victimized youth versus others suggest that more information is needed to understand how they are relating to peers in both positive and risky ways in this environment.

Polyvictimization and Cybervictimization Among College Students From France: The Mediation Role of Psychological Distress and Resilience

“…The results of this study first showed that college-age students who were victimized by different forms of victimization (emotional abuse from parents, exposure to interparental violence, sexual touching, sexual assault, and parental neglect), taken separately, were more likely to be victimized of cyberbullying. These results corroborate other studies that have shown positive significant association between various forms of prior victimization and cyberbullying (Chen et al, 2018;Hamby et al, 2018a;Mitchell, Segura, Jones, & Turner, 2018). Although none of the identified studies have been conducted among college-age students, they have shown that young people who have experienced different forms of abuse or interpersonal violence during childhood (Hébert et al, 2016;Kircaburun, Demetrovics, Király, & Griffiths, 2018) are more likely to be cybervictimized later.…”

Relationship between Socio-Emotional Competencies and the Overlap of Bullying and Cyberbullying Behaviors in Primary School Students

“…These results confirm the bullying overlap [ 33 , 39 ] and demonstrate a high rate of overlap between online bullying and offline bullying. Previous research has found that adolescents who were victimized through various forms of traditional bullying exhibited more risky behavior linked with the use of technology [ 52 ]. In primary school students, the same trend is observable in relation to cyberbullying, confirming the overlap of victimization in physical and online settings in the final years of primary education [ 35 ].…”

Bringing Feminist Sociological Analyses of Patriarchy Back to the Forefront of the Study of Woman Abuse

“…In fact, for numerous women, nonphysical and physical assaults “seep into one another” (Ptacek, 2016, p. 128). Consider that DeKeseredy et al’s (2019) campus climate survey found that many female students experienced polyvictimization , which means having been targeted by multiple victimizations of different kinds of behaviors located on the continuum of sexual violence, not just multiple experiences of the same type of abuse (Mitchell et al, 2018).…”