Peer victimization and prosocial behavior trajectories: Exploring sources of resilience for victims

•Parallel trajectories of peer victimization and prosocial behaviors were examined.•Three latent classes emerged (labeled resilient, at-risk, and normative).•Post hoc analyses (child, family, and school covariates) supported the classes.•Resilient class had decreasing victimization coupled with high-stable prosociality.•Suggests potential protective function of prosocial behaviors for victims.

This study examined the developmental trajectory of a potential source of resilience, prosocial behaviors, and children's peer victimization from third to sixth grade. Trajectories were examined for 1091 children (540 females, 81.4% Caucasian) from Phase 3 of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Latent growth mixture modeling indicated that three latent classes emerged (labeled resilient, at-risk, and normative). Follow-up analyses with covariates further supported the presence of these classes. The resilient class, of particular interest in this study, indicated high initial, but dramatically decreasing victimization coupled with high-stable prosocial behaviors over the 4-year period. These findings suggest the potential protective function of engaging in prosocial behaviors for victims and highlight the need to examine potential heterogeneity among victims.