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Stress reactivity and social cognition in pure and co-occurring early childhood relational bullying and victimization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2021

Gretchen R. Perhamus*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA
Kristin J. Perry
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA
Dianna Murray-Close
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA
Jamie M. Ostrov
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA
*
Author for Correspondence: Gretchen R. Perhamus, 478 Park Hall, Department of Psychology, Buffalo, NY 14260; E-mail grperham@buffalo.edu.

Abstract

This study tested the independent effects and interactions of sympathetic nervous system reactivity and hostile attribution biases (HAB) in predicting change in pure and co-occurring relational bullying and victimization experiences over one year. Co-occurring and pure relational bullying and victimization experiences were measured using a dimensional bifactor model, aiming to address methodological limitations of categorical approaches, using data from 300 preschoolers (Mage = 44.70 months, SD = 4.38). Factor scores were then saved and used in nested path analyses with a subset of participants (n = 81) to test main study hypotheses regarding effects of HAB and skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-R). Bifactor models provided good fit to the data at two independent time points. HAB and SCL-R interacted to predict increases in co-occurring relational bullying/victimization with evidence for over- and underarousal pathways.

Information

Type
Regular Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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