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Dwelling alone or together: An integrated framework of peer victimization, (co-)rumination, and mental health

Project description

The impact of peer victimisation on mental health

Peer victimisation can have devastating psychological effects, yet its consequences vary widely among individuals. Recent studies highlight rumination (excessively dwelling on one's distress) as a key factor in prolonged suffering for victimised youth. Despite the belief that seeking social support is beneficial, supportive friendships can sometimes worsen distress for victimised youth – perhaps due to dwelling on their experiences with friends (co-rumination). Despite the long-term risks, little is known about how victimisation, (co-)rumination and mental health evolve together. With this in mind, the ERC-funded DWELL project aims to uncover these complex dynamics. By investigating individual differences, analysing peer networks, and using innovative research methods, DWELL provides a new framework to understand and mitigate the negative effects of victimisation.

Objective

Why do some youth suffer debilitating depression or anxiety after being victimized by peers yet others grow hostile? Why do some youth dwell alone on their problems (rumination) yet others dwell with their friends (co-rumination)? When does talking to friends about problems (e.g. victimization) help or hurt? Despite the serious (and potentially long-lasting) consequences of peer victimization, these questions remain unanswered. We lack a detailed understanding on how victimization, (co-)rumination and mental health co-develop, or when and why their associations differ between individuals.

DWELL moves beyond the state-of-the-art to address these questions in three work packages. WP1 examines individual differences in the pathways between victimization, rumination and mental health. In contrast to existing work, WP1 focuses on why some victimized youth, but not others, ruminate about their victimization – even years later as adults. In WP2, I put forth a new conceptualization of co-rumination - as a dynamic process that can vary within a person across their friendships, rather than as a static trait. Towards this aim, I introduce a novel co-rumination measure that captures who co-ruminates with whom. By identifying a network of co-rumination ties, this also allows for ground-breaking insight into how co-rumination spreads in a peer group. WP3 integrates these findings into a holistic framework, accounting for the temporal ordering of victimization, (co-)rumination, and mental health.

Through a multi-method design (longitudinal studies, register data, daily diary, observation), and a novel co-rumination measure, DWELL explains individual differences in day-to-day, short-term (~1 year), and longer-term (up to adulthood) effects of victimization and (co-)rumination on mental health. This framework will help prevent suffering of victimized youth, and has far-reaching implications for non-victimized youth who engage in (co-)rumination in response to other stressors.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG

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Host institution

TURUN YLIOPISTO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 499 855,00
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 499 855,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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