Prospective associations between peer victimization in adolescence and parental stress and self-efficacy: Self-esteem and internalizing problems as pathways

Abstract

We examined associations between peer victimization in early adolescence and self-esteem and internalizing problems in late adolescence and whether these, in turn, explained variation in later parenting. We used longitudinal data from the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) and its next-generation spin-off study (TRAILS NEXT) to model links between peer victimization reported by individuals themselves, their parents, and their peers at age 11, self-esteem and internalizing problems at age 19, and parental stress and self-efficacy similar to 10 years later. The used subsample consisted of n = 199 parents (79% female, mean age = 30.48 when offspring were 30 months old) with n = 273 children. Contrary to expectations, peer victimization was not indirectly associated with later parental stress or self-efficacy via self-esteem or internalizing problems at age 19 after adjusting for baseline mental health. Internalizing problems at age 19 consistently predicted higher parental stress in all models. Our findings suggest that early peer victimization experiences have limited long-term effects on parenting, but this might be due to the current assessment of victimization experiences. To better examine the impact of parents' developmental histories, a more fine-grained measure of peer victimization should be used, taking into account factors such as severity and chronicity.