Cognitive Reappraisal Moderates the Longitudinal Relationship between Adolescents' Peer Victimization and Self-Esteem. A Latent Interaction Model

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2024 Mar 6. doi: 10.1007/s10578-024-01688-0. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTPoor self-esteem relates closely to youth maladjustment and appears to be predicted by peer victimization experiences. However, not all peer victimized adolescents face the same risk for self-esteem erosion over time. Drawing upon the Bi-Dimensional Framework for resilience and extant research, the present study examined the potential moderating role of cognitive reappraisal in the prospective relationship from peer victimization to self-esteem. To increase precision of findings the long-term impact of self-esteem on peer victimization was also tested. Self-reported data were collected from 285 early adolescents (Mage = 10.53 years, SD = 0.16; 54.0% girls) at two waves, spaced 1-year. Latent moderated structural equation analysis showed that peer victimization was negatively related to later self-esteem, but only for youth displaying low levels of cognitive reappraisal. For adolescents with high levels of cognitive reappraising, peer victimization was not found to predict any changes in self-esteem over time. The long-term impact of self-esteem on peer victimization was not supported. Overall the present study suggests that enhancing cognitive reappraisal could be a promising avenue for lowering risk for poor self-esteem in young individuals experiencing peer victimization.PMID:38446363 | DOI:10.1007/s10578-024-01688-0
Source: Child Psychiatry and Human Development - Category: Child Development Authors: Source Type: research