Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T14:43:36.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Nicki R. Crick
Nicki R. Crick*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
*
Human Development and Family Studies, 1105 West Nevada Street, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent research a relationally oriented form of aggression has been identified that, in contrast to overt aggression that harms others through physical means (e.g., hitting), harms others through damage to their peer relationships (e.g., angrily retaliating against a peer by excluding her from one's play group). The goal this research was to assess the role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type (relational vs. instrumental) in children's relationally aggressive behavior. A total of 252 third- through sixth-grade children participated as subjects. A hypothetical provocation instrument was used to assess children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for ambiguous relational and instrumental provocation situations. Results showed that, as hypothesized, relationally aggressive children exhibited a hostile attributional bias and reported significantly higher levels of distress than did their nonaggressive peers for relational provocation situations. In addition, girls reported significantly higher levels of distress than did boys for relational provocation situations. Further, a comorbid group of relationally plus overtly aggressive children also exhibited a hostile attributional bias; however, their bias was evident for instrumental provocation situations only.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Spring 1995 , pp. 313 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: Its causes, consequences, and control. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bierman, K. L. (1986). Process of change during social skills training with preadolescents and its relation to treatment outcome. Child Development, 57, 230–240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Block, J. H. (1983). Differential premises arising from differential socialization of the sexes: Some conjectures. Child Development, 54, 1335–1354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crick, N. R. (1994). The role of relational and overt aggression in the prediction of children's future social adjustment: A short-term longitudinal study. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (in press). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (in press). Social information processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. Child Development.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Bigbee, M. A. (1994). Victims of peer aggression: The lone players. Unpublished manuscript, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., Casas, J. F., & Mosher, M. (1994). Relational and overt aggression in preschool. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Dell Fitzgerald, P., & Asher, S. R. (1987, 08). Aggressive-rejected children's attributional biases about liked and disliked peers. Paper presented at he annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A. (1980). Social cognition and children's aggressive behavior. Child Development, 51, 162–170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., & Crick, N. R. (1990). Social information processing bases of aggressive behavior in children. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 53, 1146–1158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, K. A., & Feldman, E. (1990). Issues in social cognition and sociometric status. In Asher, S. R. & Coie, J. D. (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 119–155). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1990). Mechanisms in the cycle of violence. Science, 250, 1678–1683.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., McClaskey, C. L., & Brown, M. M. (1986). Social competence in children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 51 (Serial No. 213).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, K. A., McClaskey, C. L., & Feldman, E. (1985). A situational approach to the assessment of social competence in children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 344–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, K. A., & Frame, C. L. (1982). Social cognitive biases and deficits in aggressive boys. Child Development, 55, 163–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grotpeter, J. K., & Crick, N. R. (1994, 04). Relational aggression and friendship. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Conference on Human Development, Pittsburgh PA.Google Scholar
Guerra, N. G., & Slaby, R. G. (1989). Evaluative factors in social problem solving by aggressive boys. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 277–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guerra, N. G., & Slaby, R. G. (1990). Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: 2. Intervention. Developmental Psychology, 26, 269–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudley, C., & Graham, S. (1993). An attributional intervention to reduce peer-directed aggression among African-American boys. Child Development, 64, 124–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lagerspetz, K. M. J., Bjorkvist, K., & Peltonen, T. (1988). Is indirect aggression more typical of females? Gender differences in aggressiveness in 11–12 year-old children. Aggressive Behavior, 14, 403–414.3.0.CO;2-D>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nasby, W., Hayden, B., & DePaulo, B. M. (1980). Attributional bias among aggressive boys to interpret unambiguous social stimuli as displays of hostility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 459–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parke, R. D. (1992). Epilogue: Remaining issues and future trends in the study of family-peer relationships. In Parke, R. D. & Ladd, G. W. (Eds.), Family-peer relationships: Modes of linkage. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Parke, R. D., & Slaby, R. G. (1983). The development of aggression. In Mussen, P. H. (Series Ed.) & Hetherington, M. (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (4th ed., Vol. 4, pp. 547–642). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Quiggle, N., Garber, J., Panak, W., & Dodge, K. A. (1992). Social-information processing in aggressive and depressed children. Child Development, 63, 1305–1320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rabiner, D. L., & Coie, J. D. (1989). The effect of expectancy inductions on rejected children's acceptance by unfamiliar peers. Developmental Psychology, 25, 450–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, L. N. (1986). The consequences of conduct disorder in girls. In Olweus, D., Block, J., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (Eds.), Development of antisocial and prosocial behavior: Research, theories, and issues. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sancilio, F. M., Plumert, J. M., & Hartup, W. W. (1989). Friendship and aggressiveness as determinants of conflict outcomes in middle childhood. Developmental Psychology, 25, 812–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waas, G. A. (1988). Social attributional biases of peer-rejected and aggressive children. Child Development, 59, 969–992.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed