From Classroom to Dyad: Actor and Partner Effects of Aggression and Victim Reputation

This study examined whether early adolescents’ classroom aggression predicted their aggression in a one‐on‐one dyadic setting, and whether early adolescents’ classroom victimization predicted their victimization in the dyadic setting. After completing peer nominations for aggression and victimization, 218 early adolescents (M age = 11.0 years) participated in a dyadic paradigm in which they were led to believe that they played against a same‐sex classmate for whom they could set the intensity of noise blasts. Analyses with the actor–partner interdependence model by Olsen and Kenny showed that peer‐nominated physical aggression for boys and relational aggression for girls predicted noise blast aggression in the dyadic setting. For girls but not boys, peer‐nominated victimization predicted victimization in the dyadic setting.     

Maladaptive Peer Relationships and the Development of Relational and Physical Aggression During Middle Childhood

This study examined the unique roles of peer rejection and affiliation with aggressive peers in the development of relational and physical aggression in a sample of 979 2nd through 4th grade children. Information about target children and their best friends’ aggression and peer rejection was gathered via peer‐nominations when the majority of children were in the 3rd grade, and again approximately one year later. Friendships were identified by having target children nominate their three best friends in their classroom. Path analyses conducted with children who had at least one reciprocated friendship revealed that peer rejection and friends’ aggression predicted changes in target children's aggression; however, the patterns of relations varied by gender and form of aggression. Higher initial levels of rejection and friends’ relational aggression predicted increases in relational aggression among girls only, whereas rejection and friends’ physical aggression predicted increases in physical aggression among boys and girls. The significance of these results for the application of peer influence theories to relational aggression, and to females, is discussed.     

Is preventing peer victimization sufficient? The role of prosocial peer group treatment in children's socioemotional development

Despite extensive research on the harmful effects of peer victimization, little is known about whether prosocial treatment from peers contributes to healthy socioemotional development. To address this issue, 366 third and fourth graders (170 boys; M _age = 9.34) were followed over three time points. Children completed measures of prosocial peer treatment, peer victimization, depressive affect, and friendship quality. Teacher‐reports of depressive affect and peer‐reports of aggression, victimization, and friendships were also obtained. Controlling for peer victimization, number of friends, and friendship quality, prosocial peer treatment negatively predicted depressive affect. For boys, prosocial peer treatment mediated the association between victimization and teacher‐reported depressive affect. These findings underscore the importance of prosocial peer group treatment and the need to broaden the goals of anti‐bullying interventions to include the promotion of positive peer interactions.     

Teacher–Child Relationship Quality and Children's Peer Victimization and Aggressive Behavior in Late Childhood

This investigation examines the extent to which characteristics of the teacher–child relationship (closeness, dependency, and conflict) are predictive of changes in children's peer victimization and aggressive behavior over the course of a school year. Relational and physical forms of victimization and aggression were studied, and changes in peer acceptance and number of friendships were tested as possible mediators. Longitudinal data from 410 fourth‐ and fifth‐grade students (193 boys; 217 girls) and their teachers (N = 25) were analyzed. Whereas dependency on the teacher predicted heightened victimization from peers, a close relationship with the teacher forecasted less physical aggression toward peers. Moreover, decreases in number of friendships partially mediated the link between dependency on the teacher and heightened relational victimization for boys. These findings have implications for understanding the continuing influence of teacher–child relationships on children's social development in late childhood and for identifying interpersonal risk factors associated with involvement in peer harassment.     

Relational Aggression in Peer and Dating Relationships: Links to Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment

We examined the contribution of relational aggression in adolescents' peer and dating relationships to their psychological and behavioral adjustment. In the Fall and again four months later, 1279 (646 female) grade 9 students reported on relational aggression perpetration and victimization in their romantic and peer relationships, depression/anxiety symptoms (psychological adjustment) and delinquency (behavioral adjustment). Using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for Time 1 adjustment/behavior, peer relational aggression perpetration predicted depression/anxiety. Dating relational victimization also predicted depression/anxiety, but only for girls. Furthermore, girls who were perpetrators of relational aggression in both peer and dating contexts were most likely to show increases in delinquent behavior. We conclude that dating and peer relationships are not redundant, but make independent and additive contributions to adolescent adjustment. Girls, in particular, may be at greatest risk for poor outcomes when they have relationally aggressive relationships. Results also highlight the need for greater awareness of the complexity and significance of adolescent dating relationships.     

Popularity and Acceptance as Distinct Dimensions of Social Standing for Chinese Children in Hong Kong

This study attempted to validate distinctions between popularity and social acceptance in the cultural context of Hong Kong. We recruited 280 Chinese children (132 girls, 148 boys, mean age = 9.5) from Hong Kong primary schools. These children completed a peer nomination inventory assessing popularity, social acceptance, social rejection, aggression, peer victimization, and social behavior. Consistent with research conducted in western samples, we found that social acceptance was correlated primarily with positive behavioral characteristics (i.e., assertiveness‐leadership and low levels of submissiveness‐withdrawal). In contrast, popularity was associated with a more mixed pattern of features including high levels of aggression. The overall pattern of findings closely replicates past research conducted in North American and European settings.     

Peer Victimization: The Role of Emotions in Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping

Mediator models were examined in which children's emotional reactions to peer aggression were hypothesized to mediate their selection of coping strategies and subsequent peer victimization and internalizing problems. Self‐report data were collected from 145 ethnically diverse kindergarten through fifth grade children (66 females and 79 males) who attended a predominantly low‐ to middle‐class school. Hypothetical scenarios were used to assess children's anticipated responses to peer aggression. Victims reported more intense negative emotions (e.g., fear and anger) than did nonvictims. Fear emerged as a predictor of advice seeking which, in turn, predicted conflict resolution and fewer internalizing problems. Conflict resolution was associated with reductions in victimization. Anger and embarrassment predicted revenge seeking which, in turn, was associated with increases in victimization. Additional pathways predicting changes in peer victimization across a single academic year as a function of children's emotional and coping responses to peer abuse are discussed.     

Prospective Associations between Peer Aggression and Victimization: The Moderating Roles of Physiological Stress Reactivity and Gender

The present investigation examined whether heightened skin conductance reactivity (SCLR) to peer stress strengthened the prospective associations between physical and relational aggression and victimization, and whether associations were stronger for physical forms of aggression and victimization among boys and relational forms of aggression and victimization among girls. A total of 91 children [M age = 10.18 years, standard deviation (SD) = .68] were assessed twice over 1 year. At the first assessment, SCLR in response to recounting a relational stressor (e.g., exclusion; SCLR‐R) and an instrumental stressor (e.g., property theft; SCLR‐I), and teacher‐reported aggression were measured. Parents reported on child victimization at both time points. Among youth with heightened SCLR‐I, physical aggression was associated with increases in physical victimization for boys and decreases in physical victimization for girls. Among youth with heightened SCLR‐R, relational aggression was associated with increases in physical victimization for girls only. Results were largely consistent with the hypothesis that aggressors with a propensity to exhibit negative displays of emotion, as indexed by heightened sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reactivity to peer stress, may be especially likely to suffer peer victimization. Gender‐specific effects highlight the importance of including both physical and relational forms of aggression and victimization to capture victimization risk among aggressive boys and girls.     

Relational Aggression and Victimization in Young Adults' Romantic Relationships: Associations with Perceptions of Parent, Peer, and Romantic Relationship Quality

This study had three goals: (a) To investigate gender differences in relational aggression and victimization within young adults' romantic relationships, (b) to investigate associations between romantic relational aggression and victimization and perceptions of romantic relationship quality, and (c) to explore parent and peer predictors of romantic relational aggression and victimization. College students (70 females and 34 males) completed self‐reports of romantic relational aggression and victimization, and parent, peer, and romantic relationship quality. Men and women reported equal levels of romantic relational aggression, and men reported higher levels of victimization than women. Aggression and victimization were positively correlated with negative romantic relationship qualities and negatively correlated with positive relationship qualities. Regression analyses indicated that both romantic relational victimization and romantic relational aggression explained variance in romantic relationship quality. There were several significant associations between parent and peer relationship quality and romantic relational aggression and victimization, which suggest that poor relationships with parents and peers may play a role in the development and maintenance of these behaviors.     

Italian Preschoolers' Peer‐status Linkages with Sociability and Subtypes of Aggression and Victimization

Little is known about the behavior of preschool children belonging to peer sociometric status groups (popular, average, rejected, neglected, and controversial) in cultural contexts outside North America. This study examined the social interactions of Italian preschoolers. The sample consisted of 266 Italian preschoolers (mean age of 64 months). Physical and relational subtypes of aggression and victimization, as well as sociable behavior, were measured by peer nominations and teacher ratings. Peer nominations of acceptance and rejection (like and dislike nominations) were also collected in order to form the sociometric status groups. Results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that items developed with US preschoolers appeared to work fairly well in identifying behavioral constructs in Italian preschoolers. Findings generally supported previous research with American preschoolers. Sociometrically popular children were highest in sociability, and lowest in physical and relational aggression and victimization. The opposite pattern emerged for rejected status children. Neglected status children were generally not distinguished from average status children. Results also suggested that the enactment of relational aggression promotes greater social impact for some Italian children (controversial children), and this aggression also invites more conflict and victimization. However, the sociability of controversial children appears to buffer them from rejected group status.     

Do Friendships and Sibling Relationships Provide Protection against Peer Victimization in a Similar Way?

Based on the notion that friendship may serve an important protective function against peer victimization, this study examined the moderating effect of reciprocal friends' prosociality on the link between a child's reactive aggression and victimization. The study also investigated whether a similar moderating effect could be found with respect to sibling's prosociality, given that sibling relationships have been found to provide social benefits comparable to friendships. These questions were addressed using a sample of 246 six‐year‐old twin pairs (246 boys and 246 girls). The results showed that a child's own reactive aggression uniquely contributed to the risk of victimization for both boys and girls. The link between reactive aggression and victimization was, however, moderated by reciprocal friends' prosocial behavior and siblings' prosocial behavior, respectively. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and prevention‐related implications for children at risk for peer victimization.     

Coping with peer victimization predicts peer outcomes across the transition to middle school

The present study examined strategies for coping with peer victimization as predictors of peer victimization experiences and broader peer relationship outcomes across the transition to middle school, and tested for possible gender differences in these associations. Participants included 123 early adolescents (M_age = 12.03 years at T1; 50% males; 58.5% European Americans, 35% African Americans, 6.5% of other races/ethnicities) who reported on strategies for coping with peer victimization at T1 (summer before the transition to middle school) as well as experiences of peer victimization and loneliness at T1 and T2 (spring of the first year of middle school). Teachers reported on peer victimization and peer competence at T1 and T2. Conflict resolution predicted higher teacher‐reported peer competence. In contrast, revenge‐seeking predicted higher self‐reported peer victimization (among girls but not boys) and loneliness, and support‐seeking predicted higher teacher‐reported peer victimization and lower teacher‐reported peer competence. In addition, cognitive distancing predicted lower teacher‐reported peer victimization and lower self‐reported loneliness among boys but not girls. Results are discussed with reference to the specific context of peer victimization and developmental period of early adolescence.     

Transactional links between adolescents’ and friends’ victimization during the first two years of secondary school: The mediating role of likeability and friendship involvement

The goals of this study were to examine to what extent lower likeability at the group level and lower friendship involvement can explain the bidirectional links between adolescents’ own and their friends’ victimization over time. We tested these processes by applying a cross‐lagged path model to a sample of 621 adolescents. Data were collected at four time points over the two first years of secondary school. Participants were asked to identify same grade friends within their school; classroom peer nominations were used to assess participants’ likeability as well as participants’ and friends’ level of peer victimization. Results showed bidirectional associations between adolescents’ own and their friends’ victimization by peers within the first year of secondary school. Moreover, the relation between adolescents’ own victimization at the end of the first year and their friends’ victimization next year was mediated by decreased adolescents’ likeability at the group level. Inversely, their friends’ victimization at the end of the first year predicted lower levels of adolescents’ own likeability over time, which in turn predicted adolescents’ own subsequent levels of victimization. Friends’ victimization also predicted adolescents’ lower friendship involvement during the first year, which in turn predicted decreased likeability, and ultimately higher levels of victimization.     

Children's Anger Attribution Bias: Relations to Family Environment and Social Adjustment

We examined the relations of caregiver depression and family instability to preschool children's anger attribution bias and emotion attribution accuracy on a test of emotion situation knowledge. After controlling for age, gender, and verbal ability, caregiver depression and family instability predicted children's anger attribution bias but not the overall accuracy of their emotion attributions. We also divided children into groups low and high on teacher reports of aggression and groups low and high on teacher reports of peer rejection and examined the anger attribution bias of these groups. For boys but not girls, greater anger attribution bias predicted higher levels of aggression. For all children, greater anger attribution bias predicted higher levels of peer rejection. Results suggest that the misattribution of anger to others may be an important component of some children's early emotional and social difficulties.     

Bullying and Victimization Among School-age Children: Stability and Links to Proactive and Reactive Aggression

The main aim of the study relates to the links between bullying and victimization on the one hand and reactive and proactive aggression on the other. In addition, we also investigated stability and incidence of bullying and victimization. At age 7, 236 children were rated on bullying and victimization using peer reports. At age 8, 242 children were rated again. Two hundred and fifteen children (114 girls and 101 boys) were present at both time points. Reactive and proactive aggression was assessed by teachers. The results showed that bullies and bully/victims were both reactively and proactively aggressive, while victims were only reactively aggressive. A moderate degree of stability of bullying and victimization was found, with bullying being more stable than victimization. Boys were more often bullies than girls and more stable than girls in victimization. Stable victims and stable bully/victims were more reactively aggressive than their unstable counterparts. The relevance of the outcomes to preventing future maladjustment and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Rejection Reactivity,Executive Function Skills,and Social Adjustment Problems of Inattentive and Hyperactive Kindergarteners

This study examined emotional reactivity to rejection and executive function (EF) skills as potential mediators of the social behavior problems of inattentive and hyperactive kindergarteners. Participants included 171 children, including 107 with clinical levels of ADHD symptoms, 23 with sub‐clinical levels of ADHD symptoms, and 41 typically developing children (63 percent male; 73 percent Caucasian, 11 percent African‐American, 4 percent Latino/Hispanic, 1 percent Asian, and 11 percent multiracial; M_age = 5.2 years). Inattention (but not hyperactivity) was uniquely associated with poor EF, social withdrawal, and aggression. In structural equation models, EF skills mediated the associations between inattention and both aggression and social withdrawal. Hyperactivity (but not inattention) was uniquely associated with rejection reactivity and each contributed uniquely to aggression. Findings suggest that difficulties with emotion regulation may warrant more attention in early interventions planned for children with high levels of ADHD symptoms.     

Effects of Defending: The Longitudinal Relations Among Peer‐perceived Defending of Victimized Peers,Victimization, and Liking

Previous research has shown victims of peer aggression to be positively impacted by being defended by peers, but how enacted defending impacts defenders themselves is not thoroughly understood. In this study, the longitudinal associations between peer‐perceived liking, enacted defending, and defender's own victimization were investigated among 336 adolescents (M age = 13.21 years). Peer perceived liking was expected to predict defending. It was also hypothesized that a reputation for defending victimized peers would be related to being perceived as less victimized and more liked over time. Results showed that peer perceived liking was not predictive of defending. Enacted defending was associated with a decrease in victimization over time, but also a decrease in peer‐perceived liking. Defenders may benefit from enacted defending by decreasing their own victimization, but this benefit is nuanced.     

Can Both Low and High Self‐esteem Be Related to Aggression in Children?

This study examined the opposing hypotheses that either low or exaggerated but disputed self-esteem is related to aggression in 652 12-year-old schoolchildren. Children provided peer nominations of social acceptance and of physical aggression, self-ratings of global self-worth and of social satisfaction. Teachers rated aggressive behavior and internalizing problems. Exaggerated but disputed self-esteem was conceptualized as discrepancies between self and peer evaluations of social satisfaction and of social acceptance, respectively, in combination with peer rejection. The main results showed that both low levels of global self-worth and exaggerated but disputed self-esteem were related to aggression. The findings indicated that, depending on how self-esteem is conceptualized, aggressive children may appear to have both a low and a high self-esteem. Regarding gender differences, exaggerated self-esteem was more strongly related to aggression in boys than in girls.     

Translating Social Motivation Into Action: Contributions of Need for Approval to Children's Social Engagement

This research examined how children's need for approval (NFA) from peers predicted social behavior (prosocial behavior, aggression, and social helplessness) and peer responses (acceptance, victimization, exclusion). Children (N = 526, mean age = 7.95, standard deviation = .33) reported on NFA and teachers reported on social engagement. Approach NFA (motivation to gain approval) predicted more positive engagement and less conflictual engagement and disengagement. Conversely, avoidance NFA (motivation to avoid disapproval) predicted less positive engagement and more conflictual engagement and disengagement. Some results differed by gender. This study suggests that social motivation contributes to children's peer relationships, providing a specific target for interventions to optimize social health.     

Do Parenting and Family Characteristics Moderate the Relation between Peer Victimization and Antisocial Behavior? A 5‐year Longitudinal Study

Past research has demonstrated that relationships with peers and parents play salient roles in various child outcomes. However, little research has examined the confluence of these two factors in the context of peer victimization. In particular, little is known about which family and parental factors mitigate or intensify the impact of adverse peer relations. The current study bridged this gap by testing whether maternal support and family conflict moderated the association between peer victimization and antisocial behavior. Moderation effects were found for girls but not boys. Cross‐lagged path analyses of nationally representative longitudinal data (N = 1046; 53 percent boys; Time 1: M_age = 10.7) showed that, among girls, higher levels of maternal warmth and mother–child communication significantly attenuated the link between early peer victimization and later antisocial outcomes. By contrast, greater family conflict significantly increased antisocial outcomes among girls who experienced peer victimization. For boys, early peer victimization significantly predicted antisocial outcomes, regardless of parenting and family factors. All findings remained significant even after controlling for preexisting antisocial tendencies and demographic factors, as well as for the stability of victimization in the model.