Peer Victimization and Neurobiological Models: Building Toward Comprehensive Developmental Theories

Abstract:The articles in this special issue represent progress toward a more comprehensive developmental model of peer victimization and neurobiology. In this commentary, we highlight features of each article that reveal nuances in such a developmental model as related to sex, form of peer victimization, developmental course and period, and neurobiological response system and stimulus. We also encourage further research with an emphasis on longitudinal studies that cross developmental periods and elucidate directions of causality and mechanisms of change, expanded attention to individual and environmental variables that may explain or contextualize effects, assessments of multiple neurobiological systems, and tests of replication, as well as innovation. We acknowledge the challenges of such research and thank the authors for their important contributions to the literature on peer victimization and neurobiology.