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Applying Social Cognitive Theory to Explore Relational Aggression across Early Adolescence: A Within- and Between-Person Analysis

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Abstract

In the past two decades, there has been a significant amount of research on children’s relational aggression, which has been found to be associated with psychosocial problems. Longitudinal studies have examined changes in relational aggression during early adolescence in relation to individual characteristics; however, most studies compare individual differences between people with regard to rates of relational aggression. A shortcoming to the current literature is the lack of studies that use a multilevel approach to examine individual differences (between-person) as well as the extent to which individuals deviate from their own typical levels (within-person) over time. In this study, within- and between-person psychological and peer-related predictors of rates of relational aggression over time were examined. Participants included 1,655 students in 5th–8th grade (mean age: 13.01) from four public middle schools in the Midwest, which consisted 828 females and 827 males. In terms of race and ethnicity, 819 (49.5%) were African Americans, followed by 571 (34.5%) Whites, and 265 (16%) Others. Longitudinal data were collected over four waves across two years of middle school. The findings indicated that contrary to the hypothesis that relational aggression would increase over time, there was no significant growth across time. Age, gender, and race were not associated with relational aggression over time; however, consistent with the Social Cognitive Theory, changes in within-person impulsivity, anger, and peer delinquency were all positively related to increases in relational aggression. At the between-person level of analysis, depressive symptoms and peer delinquency were related to relational aggression. Findings suggest that school-based programs that address anger management, impulsivity, empathy, and victimization could help prevent relational aggression.

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Authors’ Contributions

D.L.E. conceived the study, designed the study, collected data, secured IRB, drafted the manuscript and revised the manuscript, and edited the manuscript; G.J.M. conducted the analyses and wrote the Methods and the Results section; J.S.H. wrote the Introduction and the Literature Review, and edited the article; S.M.R. contributed to the Introduction and edited the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

Data in this manuscript were drawn from a grant from the CDC (1U01/CE001677) to the lead author.

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This manuscript’s data will not be deposited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Florida, 945 Center Road, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Dorothy L. Espelage

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8V 3C5, USA

    Gabriel J. Merrin

  3. School of Social Work, Wayne State University, 5447 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA

    Jun Sung Hong & Stella M. Resko

  4. Department of Social Welfare, Sungkyunkwan University, 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Jun Sung Hong

  5. Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, 71 E. Ferry Street, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA

    Stella M. Resko

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  1. Dorothy L. Espelage
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  2. Gabriel J. Merrin
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  3. Jun Sung Hong
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  4. Stella M. Resko
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Correspondence to Dorothy L. Espelage.

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Espelage, D.L., Merrin, G.J., Hong, J.S. et al. Applying Social Cognitive Theory to Explore Relational Aggression across Early Adolescence: A Within- and Between-Person Analysis. J Youth Adolescence 47, 2401–2413 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0910-x

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