Overt and Relational Victimization: A Meta-Analytic Review of Their Overlap and Associations With Social-Psychological Adjustment

This meta-analytic review includes 135 studies, representing 17 countries, of child and adolescent (ages 4-17) samples of overt and relational peer victimization and examines the magnitude of overlap between forms of victimization and associations with five social-psychological adjustment indices. Results indicate a strong intercorrelation between forms of victimization (r¯ = .72). No gender difference with regard to relational victimization was found, but boys were slightly higher in overt victimization. Overt victimization is more strongly associated with overt aggression; relational victimization is more strongly related to internalizing problems, lower levels of received prosocial behavior from peers, and relational aggression. Both forms are related to externalizing problems. Age and method of assessment were explored as potential sources of variability in effect sizes.