Depression and interpersonal stress generation in children: Prospective impact on relational versus overt victimization

The goal of this study was to examine depressive stress generation effects on children's reports of relational and overt peer victimization. Participants in this multiwave prospective study were 100 children assessed every 2 months for 6 months who completed self-report assessments of peer victimization and depressive symptoms at each assessment point. Using linear mixed modeling, we found that children's elevations in depressive symptoms predicted prospective increases in children's levels of peer victimization, with the effects being specific to relational victimization. Further, this stress generation effect was specific to girls and was not observed among boys. These results add to the growing body of research supporting the stress generation model of depression and suggest a specific type of negative peer experience that may be particularly susceptible to stress generation effects.