Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Psychology, Educational, Psychology, Relational aggression, Multilevel analysis, Child characteristics, Classroom characteristics, PHYSICAL AGGRESSION, GENDER-DIFFERENCES, OVERT AGGRESSION, PEER RELATIONS, SOCIAL-STATUS, BEHAVIOR, ADOLESCENTS, PRESCHOOL, BOYS, VICTIMIZATION, Aggression, Child, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Schools, Social Behavior, Social Environment, 1303 Specialist Studies in Education, 1701 Psychology, Education, 3903 Education systems, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

Relational aggression was studied within classroom environments by examining individual and classroom correlates among 2731 children (3rd–5th graders) during two successive measurement years. Multilevel analyses yielded small gender differences for relational aggression, indicating that such aggressive behavior was more associated with girls as compared to boys. Findings further demonstrated that relational aggressionwas positively associated with perceived popularity and peer rejection. Relational aggression was also found to be highly stable over time. Additionally, higher classroomaggression norms, reflected by the classroom level for relational aggression, were associated with increased relational aggression in children. Although variation in relational aggression was situated both at class- and individual-level, differences between individuals were considerably larger than differences between classes. Limitations and further research suggestions are provided and practical implications are discussed.