Anxiety Sensitivity and Internalizing Symptoms: Co-Predictors of Persistent Peer Victimization in Elementary School Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT Previous research suggests both social contextual and individual difference variables contribute to chronic peer victimization. We tested whether two individual difference variables – anxiety sensitivity (AS) and internalizing symptoms (IS) – predicted persistent peer victimization in elementary school children. Participants were 677 fourth-grade students (51.8% girls) from 10 public elementary schools. We hypothesized that persistent victims would report the highest levels of AS and IS. We also expected that IS would mediate the link between AS and persistent peer victimization. Results indicated that persistent victims reported significantly higher levels of AS and IS than transient or limited victims, and we found evidence that IS functioned as an intermediate variable between AS and persistent peer victimization status. Implications and directions for research are discussed.