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Bidirectional Associations between Peer Victimization and Functions of Aggression in Middle Childhood: Further Evaluation across Informants and Academic Years

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Abstract

The current 3-wave study examined bidirectional associations between peer victimization and functions of aggression across informants over a 1-year period in middle childhood, with attention to potential gender differences. Participants included 198 children (51% girls) in the third and fourth grades and their homeroom teachers. Peer victimization was assessed using both child- and teacher-reports, and teachers provided ratings of reactive and proactive aggression. Cross-classified multilevel cross-lagged models indicated that child-reports, but not teacher-reports, of peer victimization predicted higher levels of reactive aggression within and across academic years. Further, reactive aggression predicted subsequent increases in child- and teacher-reports of peer victimization across each wave of data. Several gender differences, particularly in the crossed paths between proactive aggression and peer victimization, also emerged. Whereas peer victimization was found to partially account for the stability of reactive aggression over time, reactive aggression did not account for the stability of peer victimization. Taken together with previous research, the current findings suggest that child-reports of peer victimization may help identify youth who are risk for exhibiting increased reactive aggression over time. Further, they highlight the need to target reactively aggressive behavior for the prevention of peer victimization in middle childhood.

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Notes

  1. Please note that the preceding 95% credibility interval did not contain zero, but is reported to two decimal places in text.

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Acknowledgements

The research described in this paper was supported by the University of Kansas and by a Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation awarded to the first author. We would like to thank the students, teachers, and school administrators whose continued participation in our project made this study possible. We are also appreciative of the other members of the KU Child Behavior Lab for their assistance throughout the data collection process.

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  1. Clinical Child Psychology Program, 2015 Dole Human Development Center, University of Kansas, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    John L. Cooley, Paula J. Fite & Casey A. Pederson

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  1. John L. Cooley
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  2. Paula J. Fite
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Correspondence to John L. Cooley, Paula J. Fite or Casey A. Pederson.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Cooley, J.L., Fite, P.J. & Pederson, C.A. Bidirectional Associations between Peer Victimization and Functions of Aggression in Middle Childhood: Further Evaluation across Informants and Academic Years. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46, 99–111 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0283-8

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