Identifying Relationally Aggressive Students: How Aligned are Teachers and Peers?

Puhy, Chandler E.; Daly, Brian P.; Leff, Stephen S.; Waasdorp, Tracy E.

doi:10.1007/s12310-021-09498-8

Original Paper
Published: 10 January 2022

Identifying Relationally Aggressive Students: How Aligned are Teachers and Peers?

Chandler E. Puhy ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0854-4144¹,
Brian P. Daly¹,
Stephen S. Leff² &
Tracy E. Waasdorp²

School Mental Health (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Relational aggression is characterized by attempts to damage another’s relationships or social status and is a major concern affecting academic, socioemotional, behavioral, and health outcomes, particularly for urban, minority youth. Teachers and peers frequently disagree about which students are relationally aggressive. Factors associated with peer and teacher discordant and concordant identification of relationally aggressive students were explored including prosocial behavior, perceived popularity, academic competence, and gender. Participants included 178 3rd–5th grade students across 11 urban classrooms. Findings revealed that students were more likely to be rated as relationally aggressive by their peers but not their teacher as scores on peer nominations for prosocial behavior decreased, while teacher-rated academic motivation/participation increased. Female students were more likely to be concordantly identified by peers and teachers as relationally aggressive when ratings for overt aggression increased. These results highlight the utility of obtaining ratings from multiple informants as well as the difficulty in accurately identifying all students who may benefit from interventions targeting relational aggression. Findings also suggest factors that may be related to the potential shortcomings of current measures and provide avenues for additional research to improve detection of relationally aggressive students.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the following individuals who contributed to this research study: Brooke Paskewich, Branlyn DeRosa, Wanda Moore, Katherine Streit, Danielle Centeno, Krista Mehari, Leah Brogan, Courtney Calloway, Shani Gardner, and Amanda Parks.

Funding

The research for this study was supported by a grant from the Institute of Educational Sciences in the Department of Education (R305AI30175). The writing of the manuscript was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD; 1R01HD094833-01A1). This research was made possible, in part, by the support of the School District of Philadelphia. Opinions contained in this report reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the School District of Philadelphia or the funding agency.

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Department of Psychology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
Chandler E. Puhy & Brian P. Daly
Violence Prevention Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA
Stephen S. Leff & Tracy E. Waasdorp

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Brian P. Daly
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Stephen S. Leff
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Tracy E. Waasdorp
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Puhy, C.E., Daly, B.P., Leff, S.S. et al. Identifying Relationally Aggressive Students: How Aligned are Teachers and Peers?. School Mental Health (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09498-8

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Accepted: 28 December 2021
Published: 10 January 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09498-8

Keywords

Relational aggression
Multiple-informant
Prosocial behavior
Academic competence
Gender
And perceived popularity