Browsing by Subject "Relational Aggression"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Relational Aggression and Externalizing: A Common Etiology?
    (2016-12) Carey, Bridget
    Previous research suggests that a highly heritable general externalizing factor contributes to individual differences in a range of behaviors marked by impulsivity and disinhibition, such as rule-breaking and aggression. Relational aggression has been found to be moderately heritable and to share common genetic and environmental influences with physical aggression, though no prior studies have examined the etiological commonality between relational aggression and a more broadly construed externalizing domain. Using a sample of 499 like-sex twin pairs, the present study confirmed that six measures of externalizing-related behaviors formed two distinct subfactors of rule-breaking and aggression. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that relational aggression correlated nearly equally with both factors. Factors of aggression, rule-breaking, and relational aggression were fit in an independent pathway model which revealed that relational aggression was influenced by additive genetics and non-shared environmental effects (a2 = .31 and e2 = .69). A majority of the heritability of relational aggression (72%) was shared with the aggression and rule breaking factors, whereas the majority of the non-shared environmental influence (88%) was specific to relational aggression. Findings suggest that relational aggression should be included in the broader externalizing domain, and that it may be its own distinct subfactor of externalizing, rather than simply being an alternate form of aggression.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Women's friendship dissolution: A qualitative study
    (2008-12) Jalma, Katie S.
    This study is the first of its kind to explore and describe female experiences of ending a friendship (non-romantic) with a female friend. The adult friendship did not end through death or moving away, and it ended within the last five years. The unique and specific characteristics of women's relationships with women may suggest that the maintenance of their relationships carry a particular importance that differs from social connections in the lives of men. Given the importance of relational connection in women's lives and the scarcity of literature regarding friendship dissolution, an investigation of the process of women's friendship dissolution was warranted. A survey of the literature provided direction for the exploratory research questions that guided the development of the interview protocol. Participants included in this study were 15 professional women (ages 25-72 years, median age = 32) self-selected from three different recruitment pools. The primary researcher conducted face-to-face interviews with all of the participants. The interviews were analyzed by a research team of three judges employing a qualitative research methodology guided by Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill, et al, 1997; Hill et al., 2005). The analysis was reviewed by an outside auditor for the study. Final data analysis revealed four domains (Friendship Characteristics, Components of Friendship Dissolution, Learning about Self and Friendship Dissolution, and Experience Related to Participation in Study and Interview), nine core ideas (Friendship Formation, Nature of Friendship, Reason for Dissolution, Process of Dissolution, Nature of Relationship Post-Dissolution, Outcome of Dissolution Experience, Increased Self-Awareness, Awareness Regarding Friendship and Dissolution, and Reaction to Interview), and thirty-two categories. Study strengths include exploratory investigation of an unexamined phenomenon, goodness of fit between research topic, data collection, and research methodology, and participant ability to describe complex facets of relationship dynamics due to their professions. Limitations of this study include the inability to generalize the findings outside of the participants of this study, self-select and self-report data collection methods, and possible interviewer and research team bias. Future research directions incorporate theoretical connections to female stress response (e.g. Taylor et al., 2000), relational aggression (Crick, 1995), and women's development (Josselson, 1996). Implications for the study for counseling women were discussed.