The Fault in Our Peers: Peer Victimization’s Association With Stress in Late Adolescence

Negative social experiences like peer victimization can impact adolescents’ adjustment during the transition from high school to university (Jantzer & Cashel, 2017), leading to increased stress (Newman et al., 2005; 2011). This study’s aim was to investigate links between types of past peer victimization (i.e., physical, verbal, social, attacks on property, and cyber) and adolescents’ stress during the university transition. Participants were N = 488 undergraduate students aged 17 to 19 (M = 18.16, SD = .633). Participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring peer victimization (MPVS-R; Betts et al., 2015) and stress (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983). Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that verbal victimization has a unique relationship with stress when controlling for all other study variables (β = .239; p < .001) and that gender identity did not moderate the relationship between any type of past peer victimization and stress.