National prevalence of peer victimization among young children with disabilities in the United States

Abstract

Peer victimization is a serious social problem that can negatively affect children's psychosocial development and school adjustment, and may have lasting effects for victims. The rates of peer victimization among preschool children with disabilities, however, are unknown. This paper examines the prevalence and nature of peer victimization among children with disabilities in school settings using data from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (N = 1270). One-quarter to one-third of preschool children with disabilities experienced some form of peer victimization in school. Peer victimization increased over the 2003–2006 period (21% in Year 1, 25% in Year 2, 30% in Year 3), and there were also substantial rates of co-occurring types of victimization among children with disabilities. These results suggest the urgent need to provide bullying prevention strategies for children with disabilities—strategies which have been previously neglected in the context of school-based bullying prevention and intervention programs.

Introduction

Peer victimization is increasingly recognized as a serious social problem that can negatively affect children's psychosocial and academic adjustment in school (Glew et al., 2005, Scholte et al., 2007, Sullivan et al., 2006). Peer victimization is often characterized on the basis of aggression type (Wiener & Mak, 2009). Physical victimization includes such actions as hitting, kicking, punching, or tripping. Verbal victimization includes threats of physical harm, name-calling, teasing, or general verbal harassment. Relational victimization includes gossip, exclusion from a group, or threatening the withdrawal of a friendship or group acceptance (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995).

The consequences of peer victimization are serious. Victimized children are more likely than other children to develop depression, loneliness, low self-esteem, physical health problems, social withdrawal, alcohol or drug abuse, school absence and avoidance, decreased school performance, self-harm, and suicidal ideation (Brunstein et al., 2007, Fekkes et al., 2006, Glew et al., 2005, Hawker and Boulton, 2000, Sourander et al., 2006). Furthermore, victimization may have long-term effects, especially if it is chronic, severe, or persists from childhood to adulthood (Gladstone et al., 2006, Roth et al., 2002, Schreier et al., 2009, Smokowski and Kopasz, 2005).

Previous studies suggest children with disabilities are more frequent targets of peer victimization than nondisabled children and are more vulnerable to victimization by peers who have higher social status and more social power. The majority of student victimization studies found greater verbal abuse (e.g., name-calling, mimicking disability characteristics, teasing), social exclusion, and physical aggression among students with disabilities compared to their nondisabled peers (Rose, Monda-Amaya, & Espelage, 2011).

Despite the urgent need for research on peer victimization among children with disabilities, the subject has received little attention (Mishna, 2003). Furthermore, although the prevalence of bully–victim problems in school-age children and adolescents has been investigated, the extent of the problem is unknown among younger children with disabilities. However, most children experience their first extended peer interactions in preschool and kindergarten. These years are a formative time for the development of peer relationships in general. They are also significant to children's development insofar as being victimized in kindergarten may lead to school avoidance and even to a continuous victimization cycle (Alsaker and Valkanover, 2001, Buhs et al., 2006, Perren and Alsaker, 2006). Given the significance of early identification of children's peer victimization for intervention and prevention efforts, this study focuses on the peer victimization of children with disabilities in preschool, kindergarten, and the early elementary school years. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and nature of peer victimization among young children with disabilities.