The Impact of Peer Victimization on Aggressive Behavior among Middle School Students: The Mediating Role of Forgiveness

This study investigated the impact of peer victimization on aggressive behavior and the mediating role of forgiveness among 678 junior high school students. Data were collected using the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS), Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-12 (TRIM-12), and Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), with mediation effects tested through the bias-corrected bootstrap method. Key findings revealed: (1) A significant positive correlation between peer victimization and aggressive behavior(β= 0.69, p< 0.001), with female students demonstrating notably higher aggressive behavior scores than males (2.34 vs 2.14, p< 0.001); (2) A significant negative association between forgiveness levels and aggression (β= -0.49, p< 0.001), with female students showing significantly higher unforgiveness tendencies than males (2.96 vs 2.64, p< 0.001); (3) Forgiveness partially mediated the relationship between peer victimization and aggressive behavior(indirect effect=0.20, 95% CI [0.13, 0.27]), accounting for 28.99% of the total effect. The research demonstrates that peer victimization not only directly increases aggressive behavior risk but may also exacerbate aggressive behavior tendencies indirectly by reducing forgiveness levels, highlighting forgiveness as a protective adaptive coping mechanism. These findings provide theoretical support for school bullying interventions, suggesting the integration of forgiveness cultivation into mental health education systems to mitigate aggressive behavior tendencies among victimized adolescents and prevent cyclical school violence.