Looks like you’re missing the jQuery ready function. Try this:
jQuery(document).ready(function($){
$.delegate('p','mouseover', function(e){
$("#yyy a.tippy_link").css("background-color","yellow");
});
$.delegate('p','mouseout', function(e){
$("#yyy a.tippy_link").css("background-color","red");
});
});
Cheers,