Parental school involvement as a moderator of the association between peer victimization and academic performance

A link between experiences of peer victimization and poor academic performance has been established. However, the specific links between overt and relational forms of victimization and academic performance are not well understood, and factors that may help to mitigate this association are not known. Accordingly, the present study examined parental school involvement as a moderator of the associations between peer victimization (both overt and relational) and academic performance using teacher reports on 704 elementary school-age youth (51% female) in kindergarten thru 5th grade. Results indicated that high levels of peer victimization, particularly relational victimization, were associated with lower levels of academic performance at both high and low levels of parental involvement for both boys and girls. However, the highest levels of academic performance were evident when parental involvement was high and levels of relational victimization were low, and the lowest levels of academic performance occurred when parental involvement was low and levels of relational victimization were high. Implications for findings are discussed.