High school still haunts us: Effects of past and current peer victimization on memory Aaliyah Gibbons, Alanna Wormwood, and Jennifer M. Knack Clarkson University Children who have been peer victimized exhibit poorer school achievement than children who have not been peer victimized (Glew et al., 2005; Ladd, 2008; Wentzel & Caldwell, 2006). Although this association has been attributed to school absenteeism and bully avoidance, chronic stress also negatively affects memory. Chronic stressors can lead to decreased hippocampal volume, morphology of dendrites in the C3 region of the hippocampus, and suppressed neurogenesis of the dentate gyrus granule neurons in the same area (McEwen, 1999; Czeh et al., 2001; Amaral et al., 2007). All of these regions are imperative to memory formation. Given that peer victimization is considered a chronic social stressor, we examined whether peer victimization negatively impacts memory. Participants Men (n = 67) and women (n = 32) enrolled in Introduction to Psychology at Clarkson University participated. Most of the participants were low income individuals (90%), freshmen (42%), and White (88%). Materials California Verbal Learning Test- Second Edition (CVLT-II). The CVLT-II task includes immediate free recall, short delayed free recall, short delayed cued recall, long delayed free recall, long delayed cued recall, and long delayed yes/no recognition tests. The immediate free recall test includes two lists with 16 words each. There were five immediate recall trials for List A and one trial for List B. Next, participants completed the short delayed free and cued recall task for List A. Participants then had a 20 minute delay followed by a long delayed free and cued recall task and a recognition task. Introduction Peer Victimization Assessments. A modified version of the Children’s Self Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) and the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scale-Victim Version (DIAS) were used to evaluate current peer victimization. The CSEQ is a 15 item Likert- type scale with three subscales: overt victimization (α =.76), relational victimization (α =.81), and prosocial behavior. The DIAS is a 24 item Likert-type scale with three subscales of physical (α =.81), verbal (α =.83), and indirect (α =.88) victimization. Participants also completed items about their past peer victimization experiences. Participants who reported never, seldom, or sometimes being bullied were classified as nonvictims (n = 84), and participants who reported quite often or very often being bullied were classified as victims (n = 15). Procedure Participants completed online questionnaires about past and current experiences with peer victimization. Several days to weeks later, they came into the laboratory to complete the CVLT-II. Hypothesis 1. We hypothesized that peer victimization would impair memory on short and long delayed recall tasks. Contrary to expectations, there was no evidence that high school or current peer victimization affected short- and long-delayed free or cued recall. Method Method continued Results Results continued Hypothesis 2. We hypothesized that peer victimization would impair memory on immediate recall tasks. Using a MANOVA, we found a significant high school X current peer victimization interaction (Wilks’ Lambda: F(6, 90) = 2.76, p =.02). High school X current peer victimization significantly impaired memory on trial 3 (F(1, 95) = 6.52, p =.01) and marginally impaired memory on trial 2 (F(1, 95) = 3.23, p =.08). Results continued There was also a main effect for high school peer victimization (Wilks’ Lambda: F(6, 90) = 2.93, p =.01) on memory impairment in trial 4 (F(1, 95) = 9.75, p =.002) and current peer victimization (Wilks’ Lambda: F(6, 90) = 3.06, p =.01) on trial 3 (F(1, 95) = 5.11, p =.03). Figure 2. High school X current peer victimization predicts recall on trial 2 Figure 1. High school X current peer victimization predicts recall on trial 3 Discussion The results suggest that individuals who have been peer victimized may perform worse in school due to memory deficits. The results also imply that past peer victimization may continue to have an effect on future cognition or memory consistency. Figure 4. Current peer victimization predicts recall on trial 3 Figure 3. High school peer victimization predicts recall on trial 4