Index IntroductionMethodSelection criteriaData analysisResultRelational victimization and self-conceptSelf-concept and depressive symptomsDiscussionConclusionIntroductionIt was reported that in 2017, 1 in 6 Malaysian adolescents are victims of bullying (National Health and Morbidity Survey, 2017). Bullying was defined as being subjected to “bad and unpleasant” actions, such as “teased a lot in an unpleasant way” or being “left out on purpose.” This raises an alarm about the current conditions of our adolescents. Another statistic revealed that the prevalence of mental health problems in Malaysian adults reached 29% in 2020 (Guan, 2014), and the number is higher among younger adults (National Health and Morbidity Survey, 2015). Considering these two troubling statistics, it is surprising how they can be linked, i.e. how likely the teen victim would be to have mental health problems when he or she becomes an adult. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There are different forms of peer victimization (a term used to refer to being bullied by peers) such as overt victimization and relational victimization. Overt victimization is defined as bullying of a verbal or physical nature, such as harsh words and hitting others (Casper & Card, 2016). Relational victimization refers to a situation in which individuals are treated in relationally aggressive ways, such as being abandoned, being the target of gossip and rumors, as well as threatened by their peers or significant others. Forms of peer victimization are usually studied together and are linked to psychosocial maladjustments (Kawabata, Tseng & Crick, 2014). It has also been revealed that this effect may depend on the type of victimization and that relational but not overt victimization could be a predictor of depressive symptoms (Bauman, 2008; Cooley, Fitey, Rubens & Tunno, 2014). A significant correlation was found to exist between relationship victimization and depression among African American women aged 18 years and older with 2 of the participants reporting possible suicidal ideation. According to Zimmer-Gembeck, Trevaskis, Nesdale, and Downey (2014), relational victimization has a direct effect and a significant indirect effect (when mediated by rejection sensitivity) on depressive symptoms, whereas overt victimization does not. As indicated by Zimmer-Gembeck, Trevaskis, Nesdale, and Downey (2014), people who are relationally victimized may be more likely to experience being the victim of gossip, exclusion from their social circle, and other relational victimization behaviors, thus explaining the significant association between victimization relationships and depressive symptoms. A study by Dempsey and Storch (2008) found that young adults who recall being relationally victimized during adolescence are more likely to report more severe depressive symptoms. Therefore, it can be said that the consequences of relational victimization in adolescents not only remain in the adolescence period but appear to have prolonged or made victims more vulnerable to depression when they reach the adulthood stage. Some studies have demonstrated the buffering effect of genetic vulnerability (Benjet, Thompson & Gotlib, 2010) and emotional support from the father (Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2011) on the effects of peer victimization during adolescence or childhood. childhood. This suggests that depression due to prior peer victimizationcan be moderate. However, not much research has been conducted to explore moderating factors related to the self, such as self-concept. Self-concept can refer to how individuals perceive themselves and can be viewed as a global or domain-divided aspect of self-concept (Strein, 1995). Whether defined as a global aspect of the self or divided into domains, the positive self-concept has been linked to positive adaptation to life events. For example, positive self-concept has been linked to job performance (Judge, Erez & Bono, 1998) and, in particular, academic self-concept has been found to be associated with academic achievement (Marsh, Trautwein, Lüdtke, Köller & Baumert, 2005). . In contrast, a negative self-concept leads to more severe depressive symptoms (Tarlow & Haaga, 1996). Peer victimization along with self-concept has been studied in relation to one's mental health. In a study by Grills and Ollendick (2002), peer victimization is related to anxiety among sixth-grade students, where self-esteem is the moderating factor among males and self-esteem is the mediating factor among females . Beyond that, notably, relational victimization was significantly related to negative self-evaluation, and negative self-evaluation was significantly associated with depression in three-wave data from a longitudinal study among urban African American adolescents (Taylor, Sullivan, & Kliewer, 2013). This suggests that self-concept may be a predictor of depression among adolescents. However, the influence of self-concept in young adults may be different as self-concept is believed to stabilize in the early adulthood period due to the roles assumed during that stage (Demo, 1992). Therefore, self-concept may be more influential in adulthood to protect against psychological distress such as depressive symptoms. Therefore, the present review aims to investigate the relationship between relational victimization during adolescence, depressive symptoms, and the role of self-concept during the period of young adulthood. Method Google Scholar was chosen as the search engine, and articles were selected from five databases such as Cambridge Core, Wiley Online Library, Elsevier, American Psychological Association, and Springer. The main keywords entered into the databases were relational victimization, depressive symptoms, self-concept, young adults, young adulthood, adolescents and adolescence. Keywords were chosen and included based on the relationship between relational victimization during adolescence and self-concept in young adults, relational victimization during adolescence and depressive symptoms in young adults, and self-concept and depressive symptoms in young adults. Selection Criteria There were inclusion and exclusion criteria as standards for screening journal articles and these criteria were chosen and continued to change as further steps were taken during the screening process. The final inclusion criteria were as follows: English language Peer-reviewed journal articles Year 2013 and later Refer to relational victimization during the adolescent period Refer to depression or depressive symptoms in young adults Refer to self-concept in young adults Articles were excluded if: Articles written in languages ​​other than English Journals before the year 2013 Non-peer-reviewed journal article Does not address the young adult population for self-concept and depressive symptoms Does not address the age period adolescence for relational victimization The articles were selected based on the relationship of the variables that we intended to investigate at that time. For example, ifthe relationship between relational victimization and depressive symptoms was examined, the self-concept variable did not necessarily have to be present in the article chosen for review. In terms of self-concept, articles were chosen not only if they refer to self-concept as a variable, but also self-esteem or other aspects portraying certain aspects of self-concept were taken to be analyzed in this review. Data Analysis Although all selected articles provided quantitative results, meta-analysis was not used as a method to conduct this literature review. The reason was because the studies use different measurement tools to measure the variables chosen in this review. Therefore a qualitative synthesis was used in this literature review. Out of 84,306 records identified from the databases, only six articles were chosen in the final screening. The reason for the limited number of articles in the final selection is because the chosen articles have specific criteria on the type of victimization, the type of mental health problem as well as the target population that this review aims to explore. Result Relational Victimization and Depressive Symptoms Leadbeater, Thompson, and Sukhawathanakul (2014) conducted an 8-year longitudinal study of the frequency of peer victimization and the level of depressive and anxiety symptoms from adolescence through young adulthood. Spanning two years over five phases, 459 participants aged 12 to 18 (when first identified) joined the study. Their ages ranged between 20 and 27 during the final phase of the study. Participants responded to physical and relational victimization questions in the Social Experiences Questionnaire and depressive and anxiety symptoms in the Brief Child and Family Telephone Interview across the five phases. In terms of the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms, the analysis of the results showed that relational victimization is positively correlated with depressive symptoms simultaneously in each phase for both genders. Prospectively, relational victimization in the first phase is positively correlated with depressive symptoms in the second, third and fourth phases for both genders. Therefore, from the study, it can be stated that the effects of relational victimization on depressive symptoms not only persist during the victims' adolescence period, but can last until they reach adulthood. Relational Victimization and Self-Concept Hager and Leadbeater ( 2015) investigated a 10-year longitudinal study of the influence of relational and physical victimization on physical health and physical self-concept during the period from adolescence to young adulthood. 662 participants were recruited and the sample ranged in age from 12 to 29 over a 10-year period. Participants were interviewed in six phases: Social Experiences Questionnaire (for peer victimization), Health Behavior in School-aged Children Scale (for physical symptoms), Body Areas Satisfaction Scale, Self-image Questionnaire for Young Adolescents, and one item for assess perceptions about physical health in general (for physical self-concept). From the data analysis it emerged that the concomitant relationship between relational victimization and physical self-concept was negatively correlated for the first and second phases. Negative correlations were also found between youth experiencing relational victimization in the first phase and physical self-concept in the second and fourth phases and between relational victimization in the third phase and physical self-concept in the fourth and sixth phases. Therefore, it can be interpreted that the victims ofrelational victimization during adolescence may experience a poorer self-concept when they reach the period of young adulthood. Additionally, a study by Kopala-Sibley, Zuroff, Leybman, and Hope (2013) was conducted to explore the relationship between recalled peer experiences during adolescence (overt and relational victimization and prosocial behaviors received from others) and self-criticism during young adulthood adult, an aspect linked to the concept of self. 200 young adult participants aged 18 to 25 completed questionnaires on the Self-Criticism Scale (measure of self-criticism), Social Experiences Questionnaire (measure of peer victimization and prosocial behaviors received), and Parental Bonding Inventory (measure of caring for parents during adolescence). Analysis of the results suggested that there was a significant positive correlation between recalled experiences of relational victimization with the level of self-criticism of inadequacy during the period of young adulthood. It can therefore be said that the experience of relational victimization during adolescence can lead young adults to perceive themselves as inadequate or inferior to others. Self-Concept and Depressive Symptoms A 4-year longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms with racial self-concept as a mediator in a sample of 222 individuals transitioning into young adulthood (Kogan , Yu, Allen & Brody, 2014). Participants were 16 years old when they first joined the study and 20 years old at the end of data collection. Respondents completed the hostility scale measurement, a delinquent behavior checklist, and a checklist of 15 antisocial behaviors of their peers in the first phase (16 years). Respondents also completed a racial microstressors scale adapted from research (Williams and Williams-Morris 2000) to measure racial discrimination from stages one to three (age 18), items adapted based on focus group feedback and the Inventory. multidimensional of Black identity on the first and fourth phases (age 19) to measure racial self-concept, items developed by Humprey (1982) (as cited in Kogan, Yu, Allen & Brody, 2014) from the first to third phases to measure self-control and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale from the first to the fifth phase (20 years) to measure depressive symptoms. The analysis of the results showed that a high level of racial discrimination at age 16-18 significantly led to a low level of racial self-concept, thus leading to a high level of depressive symptoms at age 20 . Thus, it can be said that self-concept, if influenced by negative experiences during adolescence, can in turn influence depressive symptoms in young adults. Additionally, Rieger, Göllner, Trautwein, and Roberts (2016) conducted a longitudinal replication study to investigate three theoretical models of self-esteem, an aspect of self-concept with depression among 2512 young adults aged 21–25 years. The theoretical models tested are those of vulnerability (low self-esteem influences depression), scar (depression influences low self-esteem) and common factor (low self-esteem and depression share common aspects and should be considered the same factor). Participants completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for three waves of data collection with a two-year interval on each wave. Analysis of the results showed that there was a statistically significant correlation in the longitudinal relationship between self-esteem and future self-esteem.