The effect of peer victimisation on cognitive development in childhood: evidence for mediation via inflammation.

IF 3.5 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Pub Date : 2025-11-01 Epub Date: 2025-03-17 DOI:10.1007/s00127-025-02836-0

Ellie Roberts, Marta Francesconi, Eirini Flouri

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Abstract

Purpose: Peer victimisation, often a serious childhood stressor, has been associated with poor cognitive outcomes. The current study sought to uncover whether peer victimisation is associated with poor cognitive functioning in childhood via inflammation.

Methods: Data from 4583 participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were analysed. Path analysis was conducted to determine whether inflammation, measured using IL-6 and CRP levels (age 9), mediates the effects of peer victimisation (age 8), even after controlling for other stressors, on multiple cognitive outcomes, including working memory (age 10), reading (accuracy, speed, and comprehension) (age 9), spelling (age 9), response inhibition (age 10), attentional control (age 11), and selective attention (age 11).

Results: IL-6 and CRP partially mediated the effects of peer victimisation on working memory, reading accuracy, and selective attention. IL-6 partially mediated the effect of peer victimisation on reading comprehension, while CRP partially mediated the effect of peer victimisation on reading speed. All effects were small. Inflammation did not mediate the effects of peer victimisation on spelling, response inhibition or attentional control.

Conclusion: Peer victimisation may impact on some aspects of children's cognitive functioning via inflammation. The cognitive outcome specificity observed warrants further research.

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同伴伤害对儿童认知发展的影响：通过炎症介导的证据。

目的：同伴受害通常是一个严重的童年压力源，与认知能力低下有关。目前的研究试图揭示同伴受害是否与儿童时期的认知功能低下有关。方法：对来自雅芳父母与儿童纵向研究（ALSPAC）的4583名参与者的数据进行分析。进行通径分析以确定炎症（使用IL-6和CRP水平测量（9岁））是否介导同伴伤害（8岁）的影响，即使在控制其他压力源后，对多种认知结果，包括工作记忆（10岁），阅读（准确性，速度和理解）（9岁），拼写（9岁），反应抑制（10岁），注意力控制（11岁）和选择性注意（11岁）。结果：IL-6和CRP部分介导同伴受害对工作记忆、阅读准确性和选择性注意的影响。IL-6部分介导同伴伤害对阅读理解的影响，CRP部分介导同伴伤害对阅读速度的影响。所有的影响都很小。炎症并没有介导同伴伤害对拼写、反应抑制或注意力控制的影响。结论：同伴伤害可能通过炎症影响儿童认知功能的某些方面。观察到的认知结果特异性值得进一步研究。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

2.30%

发文量

184

审稿时长

3-6 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is intended to provide a medium for the prompt publication of scientific contributions concerned with all aspects of the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders - social, biological and genetic. In addition, the journal has a particular focus on the effects of social conditions upon behaviour and the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the social environment. Contributions may be of a clinical nature provided they relate to social issues, or they may deal with specialised investigations in the fields of social psychology, sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, health service research, health economies or public mental health. We will publish papers on cross-cultural and trans-cultural themes. We do not publish case studies or small case series. While we will publish studies of reliability and validity of new instruments of interest to our readership, we will not publish articles reporting on the performance of established instruments in translation. Both original work and review articles may be submitted.