Overt and relational victimization and adolescent friendships: Selection, de-selection, and social influence

This study examined friendship selection and social influence in overt and relational victimization during middle school (N=504; 1214 years) using longitudinal social network analysis. Relational victimization was related to undesirability as a friend (i.e., receiving fewer friendship nominations from peers) and to selecting friends who experienced similar levels of relational victimization. Overt victimization was related to being less active in nominating peers as friends and showed maintenance of friendship ties in one friendship network, but termination or de-selection of friendships in another. Social influence was observed for both forms of victimization. The findings provide evidence for both friendship selection and social influence in victimization, suggest that victimized youth may have friendship difficulties, and underline the need to consider overt and relational victimization separately to understand the development of victimization.