Preliminary investigation of the relation between lunchroom peer acceptance and peer victimization

• DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2016.01.005
• Publication Date: 2016-02-09T05:30:31Z
• Authors: James T. Craig; Samantha J. Gregus; L. Christian Elledge; Freddie A. Pastrana; Timothy A. Cavell
• Keywords: Peer Victimization; Peer acceptance

Abstract Less structured school settings such as lunchrooms and playgrounds occasion more frequent instances of peer victimization than structured classroom settings (Fite et al., 2013; Vaillancourt et al., 2010) but, also provide students with the opportunity for social exchanges that can further their social development (Boulton, 1999; Low et al., 2010). We hypothesized that lunchroom-specific peer acceptance would predict children's level of peer victimization even when controlling for classroom-based social preference scores. Peers completed measures of acceptance, and children, teachers, and peers completed measures assessing peer victimization. As expected, lunchroom-specific peer acceptance differed significantly for rejected versus preferred/average children and for victims versus non-victims. Results also revealed that lunchroom-specific acceptance predicted concurrent levels of peer victimization when controlling for class-wide social preference scores. Findings suggest that children's acceptance by lunch mates is a potentially important parameter to consider when assessing or intervening with children who experience difficulties with peer relationships.