UCLA

This dissertation comprises two empirical studies that investigated the role of classroom context in peer victimization during middle school. In both studies, a novel methodology for measuring classroom context at the individual level was employed, in which students received their own score on the classroom context variable of interest based on the unique set of courses in their class schedule. The purpose of the first study was to examine the influence of academic teaming (i.e., sharing different classes with the same classmates) on the relationship between social preference and victimization, accounting for differences in the effect of teaming based on classroom academic performance. Based on both peer- and self-reported victimization measures, children with low social preference in highly teamed classes were more victimized than low preference children who experienced less teaming throughout the school day. For victim reputation among peers, this effect was exaggerated in higher performing classrooms. The results of this study have important implications for intervention approaches to reduce victimization that could be implemented at the school level through the use (or non-use) of structural practices such as academic teaming and ability grouping.

The purpose of the second study was to examine the effect of friendship choices on the stability of children's reputation as a victim during the first year of middle school and to investigate how friendship choices along with children's ethnic group representation in the classroom influence the likelihood of change in victim status among peers. Similar to prior research, reciprocal friends' victimization was associated with greater stability in children's own victim reputation. However, the findings demonstrated that desired friends may play a unique role in protecting children from future victimization if those friends are not victimized. The results of the second study also suggest that in ethnically diverse schools, choosing friends from the numerical ethnic majority group--who may enjoy higher social status regardless of their friends' reputations--may be another strategy for securing higher status oneself. Taken together, the two studies highlight methodological and conceptual advantages of studying classroom context at the individual level and underscore the social impact of the classroom environment.