Browsing by Subject "Relational aggression"

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    Can relational aggression and victimization help to explain the emergence of the sex difference in depression during adolescence?
    (2012-08) Mathieson, Lindsay Catherine
    The current study investigated the contributions of relational aggression and victimization to the sex difference in adolescent depressive symptoms. In addition, pubertal development and both rumination and co-rumination were examined as potential contributing factors. A total of 499 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students and their teachers participated in the current study. Relational aggression and victimization were assessed by teacher-reports, and all other constructs were measured by self-reports. Surprisingly, no sex differences in depressive symptoms were found. Relational aggression was associated with depressive symptoms, but only when rumination about victimization experiences was high. Relational victimization was associated with depressive symptoms, and this association was partially mediated by rumination about victimization experiences. Neither pubertal status nor timing interacted with relational aggression or victimization to predict depressive symptoms. Therefore, rumination about victimization experiences appears to play an important role in the associations between relational aggression and depressive symptoms and between relational victimization and depressive symptoms. The practical implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations are offered for future research.
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    Physiological and social cognitive correlates of preschool physical and relational aggression: a short-term longitudinal study.
    (2011-08) Gower, Amy Lynn
    This study examined physiological correlates and predictors of relational and physical aggression in early childhood. Preschoolers' baseline heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were measured in the fall. At the same assessment, heart rate and RSA reactivity were measured while listening to stories of peer conflict, and participants engaged in two effortful control tasks. Teachers reported on physical and relational aggression in the fall and the spring. With respect to baseline physiology, low baseline heart rate and higher RSA were associated with increased physical aggression only among children with lower effortful control scores. Higher baseline RSA predicted increased relational aggression, again only for children with lower effortful control scores. Among children with poorer effortful control, diastolic blood pressure positively predicted relational aggression and negatively predicted physical aggression. Greater heart rate increases and RSA decreases to stories of peer conflict were uniquely associated with elevated classroom physical aggression. These findings suggest the utility of examining the roles of baseline physiology and physiological reactivity in the development of aggressive behavior. Implications of these findings for the development of intervention and prevention programs targeting early physical and relational aggression are discussed.