New Article Feature: Associations Between Peer Victimization and Depression and Anxiety Disorders
A new publication led by AYM postdoctoral fellow Dr. Nicole Dryburgh, in collaboration with Drs. Melanie Dirks, Soyeon Kim, Alexa Martin-Storey, and Kathy Georgiades assesses how various forms of peer victimization are related to clinical mental health diagnoses.
Using data from the Ontario Child Health Study, the authors analyzed mental health data from 2,278 adolescents who participated in structured diagnostic interviews and and reported on their recent experiences of 4 forms of victimization:
- Physical (e.g., hitting, kicking)
- Verbal (e.g., name-calling)
- Relational (e.g., exclusion, spreading rumors)
- Cyber (i.e., online harassment)
The team found that:
- All forms of victimization were linked to major depressive disorder—though none stood out as uniquely predictive when accounting for their overlap.
- Relational victimization was independently associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia, and with having any anxiety disorder.
- Verbal victimization was also uniquely linked to GAD and any anxiety disorder.
- Cyber-victimization was associated with major depressive disorder at first, but not after accounting for other forms of victimization.
These results suggest that social-oriented victimization—specifically relational victimization—is a risk factor for anxiety disorders in adolescence. Therefore, interventions that address peer relationship dynamics, beyond overt bullying, may be critical for supporting youth mental health.
Check out the paper, “Associations between peer victimization and depression and anxiety disorders during adolescence: A population-representative study” published in Psychiatry Research for their November 2025 Edition.
