A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF PEER ABUSE AND ITS EFFECTS - THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL IMPLICATIONS

This qualitative study focuses on peer abuse as a sociocultural phenomenon. Peer abuse emerged as a serendipiditous result from the analysis of students' written recollections of what had made them the most unhappy at four stages in their earlier lives. The sample consisted of two student cohorts (1974 and 1989) including 90 respondents each. Far more negative peer treatment than negative parental treatment was reported, along with reports of serious and lasting developmental problems generally attributed only to parental causality in the literature. These results were even more salient for the 1989 cohort than for the 1974 one. Moreover, the data illustrate how peer abuse impacted negatively on the victims' parents. Answers are suggested for the question: Why is peer abuse not a more prominent research and social policy concern?