Knack to give special research talk

Nipissing is pleased to invite you to a special talk featuring Jennifer Knack from Clarkson University on February 27 at 2 p.m. in the Weaver Auditorium (B200).Knack’s lecture is titled And Words Will Never Hurt You? Using a Biopsychosocial Model to Examine the Relationship Between Being Bullied and Poor Physical Health.Here is an abstract:
A robust relationship exists between peer victimization (i.e., being bullied by one’s peers) and poor physical health such that people who report higher levels of peer victimization also report worse physical health (e.g., more headaches, abdominal pain, sore throats). Given that between 10 – 30 per cent of children and adolescents report being bullied (e.g., Grills & Ollendick, 2002; Nansel et al., 2001) and that problems with bullying continue to extend into adulthood and the workplace (e.g., Rex-Lear, Knack, & Jensen-Campbell, in press), it is important to understand why the relationship between peer victimization and poor health exists.
In study 1, Knack examine whether this relationship can be explained by individual differences related to peer victimization (i.e., rejection sensitivity, proneness to hurt feelings, need to belong) and physical health (i.e., pain catastrophizing, conscientiousness, neuroticism; Knack, Iyer, & Jensen-Campbell, in press). Using a college-aged sample (N = 1,182), Knack found that the relationship between peer victimization and poor physical health still existed even after controlling for individual differences.
In study 2, Knack then explored whether these individual differences might moderate the relationship between peer victimization and physical health (Knack, Arnocky, Thompson, & Jensen-Campbell, in progress). The results suggest that there is limited evidence supporting the postulation that individual differences moderate the peer victimization-physical health link.
In study 3, Knack examined whether the peer victimization-physical health relationship can be accounted for by the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. I found that the change in cortisol from when adolescents (N = 107) woke up to 30 minutes after waking (i.e., the cortisol awakening response) partially mediated the relationship between peer victimization and poor physical health (Knack, Jensen-Campbell, & Baum, in press). In addition, cortisol levels 30 minutes after delivering a speech marginally mediated the relationship between peer victimization and number of reported visits to health care professionals.
This study suggests that the relationship between peer victimization and poor physical health may be due to differences in the biological functioning of the HPA axis. Implications and future directions will be discussed.
Refreshments will be served.
This lecture is brought to you by Nipissing’s Psychology Department.