Childhood Victimizing ACEs, Peer Victimization, Cyber Victimization: Gender Differences and Associations with Young Adult Psychological Distress.

Abstract

Previous research indicates that over 60% of Americans have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience, or ACE (Finkelhor et al., 2011; Merrick et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 172(11), 1038-1044, 2018). Exposure to direct or indirect violence in childhood can lead to an increased risk for polyvictimization (i.e., being victimized in multiple ways) and increased susceptibility to psychological distress in adulthood (Finkelhor et al., 2011). The CDC (2021b) recently recognized peer victimization as an ACE, which was not universally considered an ACE previously. Given the association between experiencing childhood polyvictimization and substantial health risks among adults (Hughes et al., The Lancet Public Health, 2(8), e356-e366, 2017), the present study sought to answer the questions: (1) are victimizing ACEs, peer victimization, and cyber victimization all independently related to psychological distress? and (2) Is there a gender difference in these associations? Young adults (N = 496; 58.7% female, 41.3% male, 60% White) completed self-report electronic surveys assessing current levels of psychological distress and retrospective accounts of exposure to victimizing ACEs, traditional peer victimization, and cyber victimization before the age of 18. Using hierarchical regression, victimizing ACEs, peer victimization, and cyber victimization were all individually related to psychological distress for both males and females. Gender interactions indicated that for males, the association between cyber victimization and psychological distress remained the same at all levels of cyber victimization, but for females, greater cyber victimization was associated with greater psychological distress, but the inverse relationship was found for males. Findings from this study suggest that victimizing ACEs, peer victimization, and cyber victimization are all related to higher psychological distress. When working with male and female clients, practitioners should be aware that most may have mental health difficulties regardless of the number of adverse events they have experienced. For females, cyber victimization was particularly associated with greater mental health challenges.