{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T19:21:08Z","timestamp":1767640868579,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,4]],"date-time":"2026-01-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767484800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Social Science Fund Project of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region","award":["2025CJYX178"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025CJYX178"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Healthy Context Paradox suggests that victims of bullying struggle more with psychological adjustment in environments with low victimization norms. This study, guided by Beck\u2019s Model of Depression, explores this phenomenon through a cognitive lens. Using data from 2091 Chinese junior high students (54.3% boys, mean age 13.26), we identified cliques via the Social Cognitive Map and examined the mediating role of cognitive biases and the moderating role of clique-level victimization norms in the link between peer victimization and depressive symptoms. Results showed that cognitive biases partially mediated the link between peer victimization and depressive symptoms. While clique victimization norms moderated the association between peer victimization and cognitive biases, they had no significant relation to depressive symptoms. In low victimization norm cliques, peer victimization showed a stronger association with cognitive biases, especially in all-girl cliques, whereas this association was observed in all-boy cliques irrespective of norms. The moderating effects of clique victimization norms on the association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms were non-significant in all-boy and mixed-gender cliques. These findings suggest that integrating the Healthy Context Paradox with Beck\u2019s Model can inform depressive symptom prevention strategies, particularly in bullying-prone environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16010068","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T15:28:57Z","timestamp":1767626937000},"page":"68","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Do Peer Cliques and Gender Differences Shape Adolescent Depression Under Bullying? Exploring the Mediating Power of Cognitive Biases"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Xingyuan","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Elementary Education, Changji University, Xinjiang Research Center of Improving Basic Education Quality, Changji 830011, China"},{"name":"School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi\u2019an 710062, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Caina","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi\u2019an 710062, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tianyang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi\u2019an 710062, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1597","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sbspro.2015.01.810","article-title":"A study on investigation of the relationship between mobbing and depression according to genders of high school students","volume":"174","year":"2015","journal-title":"Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"461","DOI":"10.1037\/0033-2909.112.3.461","article-title":"Relational schemas and the processing of social information","volume":"112","author":"Baldwin","year":"1992","journal-title":"Psychological Bulletin"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bandura, A. 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