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Measuring Relational Aggression in Middle Childhood in a Multi-Informant Multi-Method Study

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Abstract

Relational aggression includes behaviors intended to damage the social status and relationships of others. Recent work has demonstrated problematic outcomes for both aggressors and victims. These behaviors have been associated with psychopathology, including early borderline personality pathology. Despite the importance in better understanding these behaviors, numerous questions remain regarding the validity of different informants and methods for assessing relational aggression. In a community-based sample of 330 families evenly split by child gender (50.3% female), relational aggression data was assessed via multiple informants (mother, father, and self) and multiple methods (questionnaire and interview). The results suggest that mothers and fathers show higher agreement for girls’ relational aggression than for boys’ and that the presence of gender differences depends on the method of measurement. In addition, both mothers and fathers reports of relational aggression uniquely predicted internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social problems, with fathers’ reports emerging as a particularly robust predictor. Relational aggression scores accounted for a greater amount of predicted variance in externalizing behaviors than in the other two domains. Results are discussed in the context of the utility of multiple informants and the conceptualization of relational aggression in a broader externalizing psychopathology framework.

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Notes

  1. Regressions predicting internalizing and social problems were also run controlling for physical aggression. Specifically, both informants’ Aggressive Behaviors scale scores were entered into the first step in each regression. For prediction of internalizing problems, in the first regression, gender (B = .98, p = .006) and CSBS-Dad (B = .33, p = .037) remained significant predictors; in the second regression, gender (B = 1.02, p = .004) and CSBS-Dad (B = .43, p = .006) again remained significant predictors. For prediction of social problems, in the first regression, CSBS-Mom (B = .13, p = .042) remained a significant predictor; in the second regression, no significant predictors remained. Given that the Aggressive Behaviors scale is part of the sum Externalizing Behaviors score, additional analyses were not conducted for this domain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada

    Jennifer L. Tackett

  2. Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Jamie M. Ostrov

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  1. Jennifer L. Tackett
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  2. Jamie M. Ostrov
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Correspondence to Jennifer L. Tackett.

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This study was supported in part by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Connaught Fund to Jennifer L. Tackett. The authors would like to thank the families who participated in this research and the research assistants from the Personality Across Development Lab at the University of Toronto for their contributions to this study.

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Tackett, J.L., Ostrov, J.M. Measuring Relational Aggression in Middle Childhood in a Multi-Informant Multi-Method Study. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 32, 490–500 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-010-9184-7

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