Digital Commons Network^™

Friend Over Foe: Friendship Quality And Chronic Peer Victimization, Kristin E. Landfield

Kaleidoscope

The present research builds on the extensive literature in the field of peer victimization. Specifically, it examines whether friendship acts as a buffer in the relation between implicit socio-cognitive biases and peer victimization among 82 children ages 9-13. Children completed two implicit measures of victimization in order to detect cognitive biases in socioemotional processing among chronically victimized children. Levels of friendship quality were assessed and shown to have a main effect on peer victimization indices. The emotional Stroop task related negatively to peer victimization, indicating a cognitive avoidance of emotionally-salient stimuli. The IAT and peer victimization were related such that …