Penn State Scranton assistant professors of psychology Karin Machluf and P. Douglas Sellers II, along with their colleague, Christopher Aults from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, have found in a study that heart rate reactivity is a biological moderator between peer victimization (bullying) and internalizing problems (anxiety/depression) in adolescent girls.
The researchers' paper, titled "Adolescent Girls' Biological Sensitivity to Context: Heart Rate Reactivity Moderates the Relationship Between Peer Victimization and Internalizing Problems," will be published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.
Essentially, the team found that peer victimization leads to internalizing problems in some girls, but not others. Girls whose heart rates are highly reactive to stress are negatively impacted by peer victimization and develop internalizing problems (anxiety/depression), but girls whose heart rates are less reactive do not have those negative outcomes from peer victimization.
[For more on this story by Amy Gruzesky, Pennsylvania State University, go to https://medicalxpress.com/news...r-victimization.html]
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