The Role of Peer Victimization in Academic and School Engagement Outcomes Among Socially Marginalized Adolescents: an Application of the Minority Stress Model

Links between peer victimization and school impairment (i.e., low GPAs, inconsistent attendance, and poor student–teacher relationships) are well-established. Socially marginalized adolescents, including those who are overweight or obese, have ADHD, or are LGBT, experience greater rates of peer victimization and school impairment than their nonmarginalized counterparts. However, the literature lacks tests of the extent to which social minority status itself or victimization are linked to these poor outcomes. Furthermore, the role of specific forms of victimization (i.e., overt, relational, and reputational) and sex (i.e., male or female) in this impairment remains unclear. As such, the goal of this study is to examine the extent to which overt, relational, and reputational victimization can predict the relationship between social minority status (i.e., overweight, ADHD, and LGBT status) intersected with sex, and indices of academic functioning (i.e., GPA, attendance, and student–teacher relationships). To accomplish this goal, indirect effect analyses were conducted with 1806 overweight or obese males and 1556 overweight or obese females, 250 males and 115 females with elevated ADHD symptoms, and 62 LGBT males and 418 LGBT females sampled from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development SM Study. No significant paths emerged in the models with LGBT males, but significant indirect effects emerged for models with all other identity groups, suggesting victimization is at least partially associated with school impairment. Trends for significant specific indirect effects were as follows: overt victimization (7 out of 18 models), relational victimization (5 out of 18) models, and reputational victimization (4 out of 18 models). Implications of these findings for preventive interventions are discussed.