Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T20:42:58.842Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's treatment by peers: Victims of relational and overt aggression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

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

Abstract

Past research on peer victimization has focused on maltreatment through overtly aggressive behaviors. Although a relational form of aggression has been identified in recent research, studies of the victims of relational aggression have not yet been conducted. The present research was designed as a first attempt to address this issue. Four goals were pursued (n = 474; third- through sixth-grade children): (a) development of a self-report measure of victimization through relational and overt aggression; (b) assessment of the relation between overt victimization and relational victimization; (c) assessment of gender, grade, and sociometric status group differences in victimization; and (d) evaluation of the relation between victimization and social-psychological adjustment. Results showed that the newly developed victimization measure had favorable psychometric properties and that most of the identified victims were the targets of cither relational or overt aggression, but not both. Further, rejected children were more relationally and overtly victimized than their better accepted peers, and boys were more overtly victimized than girls. Finally, relational victimization, overt victimization, and the lack of prosocial treatment by peers were all significantly related to social-psychological adjustment difficulties (e.g., depression, loneliness).

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , Spring 1996 , pp. 367 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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

Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolesent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 87, 213–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appelbaum, M. I., & McCall, R. B. (1983). Design and analysis in developmental psychology. In Mussen, P. H. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (4th Ed., Vol. 1), W. Kessen (Vol. Ed.), History, theory and methods (pp. 415–471). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Asher, S. R., Hymel, S., & Renshaw, P. D. (1984). Loneliness in children. Child Development, 55, 1457–1464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asher, S. R., Parkhurst, J. T., Hymel, S., & Williams, G. A. (1990). Peer rejection and loneliness in childhood. In Asher, S. R. & Coie, J. D. (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 253–273). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Asher, S. R., & Wheeler, V. A. (1985). Children's loneliness: A comparison of rejected and neglected peer status. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 500–505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: Its causes, consequences, and control. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bjorkqvist, K., Ekman, K., & Lagerspetz, K. (1982). Bullies and victims: Their ego picture, ideal ego picture, and normative ego picture. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 23, 307–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, J. H. (1983). Differential premises arising from differential socialization of the sexes: Some conjectures. Child Development, 54, 1335–1354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boulton, M. J., & Underwood, K. (1992). Bully/victim problems among middle school children. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 62, 73–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cairns, R. B., Cairns, B. D., Neckerman, H. J., Ferguson, L. L., & Gariepy, J. L. (1989). Growth and aggression: 1. Childhood to early adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 25, 320–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coie, J. D., & Dodge, K. A. (1983). Continuities and changes in children's social status: A five-year longitudinal study. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 29, 261–282.Google Scholar
Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., & Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 557–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crick, N. R. (1995). Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 313–322.CrossRefGoogle 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., & Dodge, K. A. (in press). Social information-processing mechanisms in proactive and reactive aggression. Child Development.Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crick, N. R., & Ladd, G. W. (1993). Children's perceptions of their peer experiences: Attributions, loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance. Developmental Psychology, 29, 244–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crick, N. R., Bigbee, M., & Howes, C. (in press). Gender differences in children's normative beliefs about aggression: How do I hurt thee? Let me count the ways. Child Development.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., & Coie, J. D. (1987). Social information-processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children's peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146–1158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Franke, S., & Hymel, S. (May, 1984). Social anxiety in children: The development of self-report measures. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the University of Waterloo Conference on Child Development, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.Google Scholar
Grotpeter, J. K., & Crick, N. R. (in press). Relational aggression, overt aggression, and friendship. Child Development.Google Scholar
Hymel, S., & Franke, S. (1985). Children's peer relations: Assessing self-perceptions. In Schneider, B. H., Rubin, K. H., & Ledingham, J. E. (Eds.), Children's peer relations: Issues in assessment and intervention (pp. 75–92). New York: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Kovacs, M. (1985). The Children's Depression Inventory. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 21, 995–998.Google ScholarPubMed
Lagerspetz, K. M. J., Bjorkqvist, K., & Peltonen, T. (1988). Is indirect aggression more typical of females? Gender differences in aggressiveness in 11- to 12-year-old children. Aggressive Behavior, 14, 403–414.3.0.CO;2-D>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olweus, D. (1978). Aggression in the schools: Bullies and whipping boys. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.Google Scholar
Olweus, D. (1984). Aggressors and their victims: Bullying at school. In Frude, N. & Gault, H. (Eds.), Disruptive behaviors in schools (pp. 57–76). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at school: What we know and what we can do. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Olweus, D. (1991). Bully/victim problems among schoolchildren: Basic facts and effects of a school based intervention program. In Peplar, D. J. & Rubin, K. H. (Eds.), The development and treatment of childhood aggression (pp. 411–448). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Parke, R. D., & Slaby, R. G. (1983). The development of aggression. In P. H. Mussen (Series Ed.) & M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (4th ed., Vol. 4, pp. 547–642).Google Scholar
Parker, J., & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer acceptance and later personal adjustment: Are low-accepted children “at-risk?” Psychological Bulletin, 102, 357–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, D. G., Kusel, S. J., & Perry, L. C. (1988). Victims of peer aggression. Developmental Psychology, 24, 807–814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, J. M., & Dodge, K. A. (1989). Reactive and proactive aggression in childhood: Relations to peer status and social context dimensions. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 455–471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, D., Dodge, K. A., & Coie, J. D. (1993). The emergence of chronic peer victimization in boys' play groups. Child Development, 64, 1755–1772.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, D. (1993, March). Antecedents of aggression and peer victimization: A prospective study. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans LA.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1983). Using multivariate statistics. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Troy, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1987). Victimization among preschoolers: Role of attachment relationship history. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 166–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed