Sociodemographic Homophily Within Friendship and Sequential Peer Victimization: A Longitudinal Dyadic Perspective

Abstract

Bullying is embedded within peer social networks that involve more than just bullies and victims. Extant research mostly supports that victims’ friends–as the individuals closest to the victims in the peer network–can protect victims by reducing risk factors and promoting adjustment at the individual level (Bukowski et al., 2018). However, the effect of similarity between victims and their friends on peer victimization remains understudied. Homophily refers to the tendency that people to befriend similar others (Lazarsfeld & Merton,1964). The current thesis investigated how homophily–magnitude (i.e., similarity level) and direction (i.e., which party of the dyad has a high score in specific characteristics) in Emotionality, social status, and peer victimization experience–between youth and their mutual friends can impact the frequency of peer victimization, concurrently and over time. The data were extracted from a two-wave longitudinal study. The analytic sample included 207 Grade 5-9 participants (female 62.8%, Mage = 11.88, SD = 1.18), creating 424 friendship dyads. Regression analyses suggested that a higher level of similarity in peer victimization at Wave 1 and in social status at Wave 2 predicted the targeted youth’s lower frequency of peer victimization at Wave 2. Regarding homophily direction, befriending peers with lower Emotionality than oneself and with more peer victimization experience than oneself at Wave 1 predicted an increase in youth’s peer victimization at Wave 2. From a dyadic perspective, the current thesis supports the effect of friendship selection based on dyadic similarity and addresses the significant role of sociodemographic homophily within friendships. It also provides a more complete picture of how bullying operates in peer groups than the current bullying research has.