Peer victimization and school refusal tendencies in early adolescence: A random intercept cross-lagged panel model analysis.

Abstract

Although peer victimization and school refusal tendencies are well documented in early adolescence, the specific within-person directional associations between the two remain underexplored. Employing a three-wave Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM), this study disentangled stable between-person differences from within-person fluctuations in a sample of 510 Chinese early adolescents (53.92% boys; Mage at T1 = 10.30 years, SD = .61), and explored potential gender differences in these processes. Results showed that at the within-person level, peer victimization significantly predicted prospective school refusal tendencies-a directional transmission most prominent during the initial wave interval (T1-T2)-whereas school refusal tendencies did not predict prospective peer victimization. Multi-group analysis indicated no significant gender differences in these cross-lagged associations. These findings highlight the developmentally sensitive role of peer victimization in precipitating school avoidance and emphasize the need for trait-controlled, timely peer interventions.