Preschool children's and teachers' behavioral responses to physical and relational peer victimization: A short-term longitudinal study

The recent focus on designing intervention and prevention programs for victimization has highlighted the need to better understand how children respond to different types of peer victimization and the frequency with which teachers respond to episodes of physical and relational victimization. This study focused on preschool children's and teachers' responses to physical and relational victimization. One hundred thirty children (ages 26-61 months) participated in a short-term longitudinal observational study of behavioral response patterns. Several types of behavioral responses to physical and relational victimization were observed at two timepoints (fall and spring). Results indicated that there was little stability in patterns of response types. There were no significant gender or age differences in patterns of responses for either relational or physical victimization, and behavioral response patterns did not significantly predict victimization later in the school year. Teachers were found to intervene in more physical than relational victimization episodes. Teachers also intervened in more physical victimization episodes involving a male victim, but more relational victimization episodes involving a female victim. Results are discussed related to the field's understanding of behavioral responses to peer victimization in early childhood and implications are highlighted.