The Relationship Between Bullying Victimization And Depression In Adolescents

Depression is a common comorbid mental health problem during adolescence,and it can cause adolescents substantial functional impairment and mental health disorders.School is the most important place for adolescents' interpersonal activities.Environmental factors in schools have an important impact on adolescents.As the most common problem in adolescents,bullying victimization would have significantly negative impacts on physical and psychological health of adolescents,such as depression.The underlying moderating mechanism between bullying victimization and depression has aroused increasing attention by researchers and the public.The Moderation Model of Social Support emphasizes the importance of peer support and adversity beliefs.Peer support has positive effect on individual development and individual adjustment,and it has been proved to be an important protector for individuals from depression.As a personality trait,adversity beliefs are internal psychological resource,and it has been proved to be an important protector for individuals from depression.This study is aimed at the subjective perspective of adolescents.The study hypothesizes that perceived peer support and adversity beliefs will have moderating effect on the influence of bullying experiences and depression.And there is an interactive effect between perceived peer support and adversity beliefs.602 junior high school students completed measures of bullying victimization,perceived peer support,adversity beliefs and depression.The present study examined perceived peer support and adversity beliefs as two potential mechanisms linking bullying victimization to depressive.In summary,the following three results were examined in the present study:1.Significant differences exist in adolescents' depression.The girls' scores are higher than boys' scores,and the non-only child' scores are higher than one-child' scores;Significant gender differences exist in adolescents' depression,and the boys' scores are higher than girls' scores.2.The bullying victimization among adolescents could significantly predict depression.3.The perceived peer support could negatively predict depression.The adversity beliefs could significantly predict depression.4.The perceived peer support and adversity beliefs had moderating effect on the relationships between bullying victimization and depression.Higher perceived peer support had a moderating effect on the relationships between bullying victimization and depression.Higher adversity beliefs had a moderating effect on the relationships between bullying victimization and depression.The present study suggests that the bullying victimization among adolescents could significantly predict depression.And the perceived peer support and adversity beliefs had moderating effect on the relationships between bullying victimization and depression.The present study suggests that in the intervention of maintaining positive effects for adolescents,both helping adolescents to improve perceived peer support and helping adolescents to establish adversity beliefs are of great importance.