ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Social and Emotional Development
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Importance of Peers: Making the Most of Peer Relationships in Childhood and AdolescenceView all 9 articles
Peers are the measure of all things: Moderating and mediating the association between victimization and depressed affect among Brazilian adolescents
Provisionally accepted
- University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, United States
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Internalizing symptoms in general and depression in particular is a significant health concern among adolescents, with peer victimization as a consistent risk factor. The current study aimed to examine the association between peer victimization and depressed affect among Brazilian adolescents, as well as the potential buffering effect of close friends and the indirect effect of social support on this association. Data were analyzed from the PeNSE - National Survey of School Health (2019), a nationally representative sample of 5th to 11th grade Brazilian students (final N = 154,122). Participants completed self-administered questionnaires assessing peer victimization, number of friends, social support, and internalizing symptoms. Peer victimization was found to be a significant predictor of depressed affect, and reporting more close friends was related to lower depressive symptoms. The study also found evidence for a curvilinear relationship between the number of close friends and depressed affect. More importantly, the number of close friends buffered the effect of peer victimization whereas peer support mediated the association to depressed affect. These findings highlight the importance of addressing both peer victimization and social support in promoting mental health among Brazilian adolescents in addition to making the school environment less challenging for all students.
Keywords: Depressed affect, Peer victimization, Friendships, social support, Brazil, adolescents
Received: 25 May 2024; Accepted: 21 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Santo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jonathan B. Santo, jsanto@unomaha.edu
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