# Retrospective Perceptions of Income Inequality, School, and Neighborhood Conditions: Associations with Peer Victimization During Adolescence and Young Adulthood

## TL;DR

This study explores how income inequality in schools and neighborhoods affects bullying and indirect aggression among adolescents and young adults.

## Contribution

The study reveals how income inequality indirectly influences peer victimization through environmental perceptions like school climate and neighborhood violence.

## Key findings

- Higher school income inequality is linked to worse school climate, which increases bullying victimization.
- Neighborhood income inequality is associated with more neighborhood violence, which raises indirect peer victimization in young adulthood.

## Abstract

Several immediate and distal social environmental factors work directly and indirectly with one another to contribute to multiple forms of peer victimization. Bullying is the most prevalent form of peer victimization during adolescence; however, peer victimization typically takes the form of indirect aggression during young adulthood. Therefore, we examined how perceptions of school and neighborhood income inequality worked through perceptions of school climate, neighborhood violence, and neighborhood distrust to predict retrospective adolescent bullying victimization and current young adulthood indirect peer victimization. In a cross-sectional sample of 460 young adults (Mage = 20.2, SDage = 2.18; 59.6% women; 40.4% men; 51.6% White), path analyses revealed that higher school income inequality indirectly predicted higher levels of bullying and indirect peer victimization through lower school climate. Higher neighborhood income inequality also indirectly predicted higher levels indirect peer victimization through higher neighborhood violence. Our findings highlight the importance of targeting adverse environmental risk factors to prevent and intervene in multiple forms of peer victimization across development.