Adolescents who experience both bullying at school and maltreatment within families are at heightened risk for psychological harm, yet little is known about how these dual adversities co-develop and influence psychosocial functioning over time. This three-wave longitudinal study followed 1,246 middle school students in central China to identify joint trajectories of bullying victimization and childhood trauma, examine their psychosocial network characteristics, and predict high-risk membership. Using KmL3D clustering, three distinct developmental trajectories were identified: (a) lower dual trauma declining, (b) high childhood trauma fluctuating, and (c) higher dual trauma declining. Network analyses revealed that protective ties among teacher-student relationships, peer attachment, gratitude, sense of control, and emotional regulation self-efficacy were strongest in the low-risk group but progressively weakened under chronic adversity, while depression and psychache became central nodes of vulnerability. To predict trajectory membership, six machine learning models were tested; the Random Forest model achieved the highest accuracy (Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve AUC = 0.97), highlighting emotional distress and poor peer attachment as dominant early warning indicators. Findings underscore that poly-victimization trajectories are heterogeneous and embedded in distinct psychosocial systems. Early identification of emotional pain and relational deficits, combined with trauma-informed, school-based interventions, may help prevent re-victimization and long-term psychological harm among adolescents facing dual adversity.
Wang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.