A multimethod examination of the friendships of overtly aggressive and relationally aggressive children

grantor: University of TorontoSelf-report and observational measures were used to assess the qualities of friendships involving overtly and relationally aggressive children. Participants ('n' = 284; 10-13-year olds) completed peer nomination measures concerning their friendships and the aggressiveness of their classmates in the fall and spring, along with self-report measures of friendship features and friendship satisfaction. Trained graduate students coded videotaped interactions of the friends for interpersonal processes, problem solutions, negotiation features and nonverbal intimacy. Overtly aggressive participants and their friends reported participating together in aggressive acts against third parties (coalitional aggression) to a greater extent than other children. Relationally aggressive children noted that their friendships were characterized by a higher degree of supportive features than participants who were not relationally aggressive (non-relationally aggressive). However, non-relationally aggressive friends of relationally aggressive children perceived greater levels of conflict and relational aggression in their friendships than did other participants. Increased participation in coalitional aggression over the school year was reported by the non-relationally aggressive friends of relationally aggressive children. Some discrepancies between friends were found in their perceptions of friendship features. The friends of relationally aggressive children who were non-relationally aggressive indicated less satisfaction with their friendships, and overtly aggressive children more satisfaction, than did other children. However, a unique decline in friendship satisfaction from fall to spring was evident in dyads involving two overtly aggressive children. Observed interpersonal processes varied according to the number of overtly aggressive or relationally aggressive children in the dyads. In conversations regarding problems with other peers, dyads comprised of two overtly aggressive children were observed to suggest more aggressive solutions than dyads consisting of one or fewer overtly aggressive participants. Finally, negotiation features, including the probability of total acceptance of proposals, and discrepancies between initial and final proposals, varied with respect to the number of relationally aggressive children in each dyad. Taken together, these findings suggest that both overtly and relationally aggressive children evidence some aspects of social competence in their interactions with their friends. However, the results also suggest possible mechanisms within these friendships by which social maladjustment and antisocial behaviour could be promoted.Ph.D