Date Available

7-6-2015

Year of Publication

2015

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Christia Spears Brown

Abstract

The current study examined whether adolescents’ gender-based victimization experiences (i.e., teasing, bullying, and rejection) mediated the association between gender typicality and psychological well-being. The current study also investigated whether daily experiences with the three types of gender-based victimization negatively impacted adolescents’ immediate emotional reactions. Participants were 570 seventh and eighth grade students (49.5% boys, 50.5% girls). During four visits over the course of two weeks, participants completed surveys about their own gender typicality, their psychological well-being (i.e., depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and body image), their experiences with gender-based teasing, bullying, and rejection, and their emotional responses to experiencing this victimization. Results indicated that experiences with gender-based teasing, bullying, and rejection mediated the association between gender typicality and psychological well-being. In addition, adolescents with worse initial psychological well-being and who experienced more rejection reported experiencing more negative emotional responses after victimization. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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