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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2022
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Hannah Schacter
Abstract
Adolescents often experience increases in peer victimization following school transitions (Kann et al., 2017), which can negatively impact their academic efficacy, a relevant indicator for future academic success (Thijs & Verkuyten, 2008). During the COVID-19 pandemic, students across the U.S. encountered a host of new learning challenges as they were forced to adapt to online schooling, while also navigating normative challenges of starting high school such as increased risk for peer difficulties. In turn, examining links between chronic peer victimization and academic efficacy is essential during this time. Furthermore, sleep is also important for learning (Curcio et al., 2006) but can be undermined by peer stress (van Geel et al., 2016). Thus, in the current study, I hypothesized that adolescents' experiences of chronic peer victimization during 9th grade would elevate the risk for insufficient sleep at the beginning of 10th grade, which, in turn, would predict perceptions of poorer academic efficacy one year later, at mid-year of 10th grade, controlling for baseline sleep and academic efficacy. Alternatively, based on separate past evidence suggesting a moderating role of sleep, I also posited a competing hypothesis that longer and better-quality sleep may buffer the longitudinal relationship between peer victimization and academic efficacy. Participants consisted of 388 9th grade adolescents (Mage = 14.05, SD = .41; 61% female) who completed online surveys containing self-report measures of demographics, peer victimization frequency, multiple dimensions of sleep (sleep duration, subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances), and academic efficacy in November 2020 (T1), February 2021 (T2), May 2021 (T3), September 2021 (T4), and December 2021 (T5). Path analyses with bootstrapped indirect effects showed that higher levels of chronic peer victimization during 9th grade were associated with increased daytime dysfunction and sleep disturbances at the beginning of 10th grade, which subsequently were associated with poorer academic efficacy at mid-year of 10th grade. No significant moderating role of sleep was found. The results demonstrate the cascading effects of chronic peer victimization on adolescents’ bio-regulatory resources and academic efficacy. The findings also highlight sleep as a potential malleable target for interventions that may be effective in hindering the harmful impact of chronic peer victimization on adolescents’ academic efficacy.
Recommended Citation
Bakth, Faizun N., "Understanding The Longitudinal Association Between Chronic Peer Victimization And Academic Efficacy: Testing The Mediating And Moderating Role Of Sleep" (2022). Wayne State University Theses. 897.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_theses/897