Against The Characteristics Of Middle Childhood Companion And His Companions Refused, Peer Acceptance

Peer victimization refers to children's experience of being a target of physical, verbal or relational aggressive behavior from peers (Mynard & Joseph, 2000). Research indicates that peer victimization is a phenomenon of high prevalence during childhood and adolescence with a ratio of 5-15 percent (Craig, Pepler, & Atlas, 2000; Kochenderfer & Ladd, 1996a; Perry, Kusel, & Perry, 1988), and can lead to both concurrent and prospective maladjustment on the part of victim. Although in recent years there has been an increasing interest in the research on children's peer victimization, most of these studies have focused on physical form of victimization and were conducted with children in Western cultures. Research into victimization among children in Chinese schools has been rare. Recently, relational forms of victimization are paid more attention to. The both forms represent two kinds of different but typical and gender-normed victimization. Based on the review, this study examined the characteristics of victimization and its relations to peer acceptance and rejection.A self-report measure of peer victimization (MPVS) and a peer nomination measure of peer acceptance and rejection were investigated on more than 2,600 pupils in middle childhood in a one-year (ages 9~10) longitudinal design. Conlusions drawn in this thesis are as follows:1. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS). Results indicated that, a), the MPVS had good internal and split half reliability. b), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated good construct validity and criterion-related validity. c), multi-group CFA supported the hypotheses that the MPVS had the same psychometric characteristics for both male and female.2. A considerable ratio of victims of aggression were found in middle childhood. Specifically speaking, more than ten percent children frequently received physical victimization from their aggressive peers with more than two percent children on relational victimization. 3. Children reported experiencing more physical than relational forms of victimization. Inconsistent with the pattern of gender differences that has been reported in studies on children in Western cultures, boys in Chinese schools reported more victimization of both relational and physical forms than did girls.4. Physical and relational victimization were moderately stable in one year time. As the children grew up, physical and relational victimization declined significantly for both boys and girls similarly.5. Three different kinds of frequent victims were found, which was the so-called"stable victims","T1 only victims", and"T2 only victims". The number of"stable victims"were significantly fewer than the other two kinds, which meant that only a few children experienced continual victimization.6. Gender moderated the relationship between physical or relational victimization and peer rejection and acceptance. For boys, peer rejection and acceptance affected both forms of victimization unidirectionally, which meant that the high level peer rejection and the low level of acceptance in early years resulted in the late physical and relational victimization. For girls, peer rejection and acceptance affected both forms of victimization bidirectionally, which meant that not only the high level peer rejection and the low level of acceptance in early years resulted in the late physical and relational victimization, but vice versa.