Examining the Role of Aggression and Victimization in the Development of Psychopathology in Ugandan Adolescents

Abstract

Positive peer relationships play an important role in child development, serving not only as protective factors during and after exposure to adversity such as war or armed conflict, but also providing a training ground to develop the wide range of social skills and behaviors necessary for effective functioning within any given cultural context. Alternately, negative peer experiences such as relational and physical aggression and victimization can serve as powerful risk factors for later psychopathology; in particular, research supports a link between depression and forms of aggression as well as victimization. However, this relation has primarily been explored in North American and European contexts. Further, child aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms both appear to be more prevalent in contexts where children have been exposed to armed conflict. Little information is available on how different forms of aggression and victimization relate to depression in youth in more diverse cultural contexts, particularly in war-affected populations. The present study addresses this gap through examinations exploring the prevalence and gender differences of different forms of aggression as well as the relationship between relational and overt forms aggression/victimization and depression in a sub-Saharan, war-affected setting. Participants include a cross-sectional sample of 258 adolescents (M=16.26 years of age) to examine prevalence and gender differences in forms of aggression and victimization, as well as 96 adolescents (M=15.71 years of age) studied longitudinally over one calendar year to examine the relation between aggression, victimization and depression. Findings indicate that self-reported relational aggression as well as overt aggression each uniquely predicts depression symptoms, controlling for the alternate form of aggression. Relational victimization also uniquely predicts depression symptoms after controlling for overt victimization. Overt victimization did not significantly predict depression after controlling for the contribution of relational victimization. Implications of findings, limitations and future directions are discussed.