Aggressiveness in children

The objective of this study was to develop a peer nominating instrument for identifying children victimized by their peers. Results supported the reliability and validity of the Children's Aggression and Victimization Inventory (CAVI). Test items were highly intercorrelated; test-retest stability was high; consensus among peers on victim nominations was strong. A secondary goal was to assess developmental trends in victimization. Between the third and sixth grades, physical victimization decreased while verbal victimization remained level. Rates of victimization were greater for boys than for girls. A final aim was to search for links between the CAVI victim scale and aggression, intelligence and sociometric status. Aggression and victimization were independent of one another but both contributed significantly to children's rejection by peers. Implications of the research and suggestions for future uses of the CAVI are discussed.

The present study examines whether one aspect of problematic adjustment--poor self-concept--contributes to victimization, is a consequence of victimization, or both. A sample of 187 third- through seventh-grade children were tested in both the fall and spring of the academic year on four self-report, self-concept measures: (a) global self-esteem, (b) social self-esteem, (c) self-efficacy for assertion, and (d) self-efficacy for aggression. At both times of testing, children also reported classmates who manifested both victimized and aggressive behaviors. Results indicated that social self-esteem and self-efficacy were both antecedents of victimization even after controlling for T1 levels of victimization. Social self-esteem was also an outcome of victimization after controlling for T1 levels of social self-esteem. A secondary consideration of the research was to investigate whether poor self-concept is predictive or an outcome of aggression, and results are discussed. Theoretical explanations for the specific relations found are advanced.

Children nominated same-sex, same-grade peers on aggression, victimization, friendship, and behavioral characteristics. Results showed that aggressive children did not have fewer friends, but did have more enemies than nonaggressive children. Victimized children had fewer friends and more enemies than nonvictimized children. It was also shown that aggressive children's friends are also aggressive and victimized children's friends are other victims. Children who were both aggressive and victimized were perceived as the most disruptive and least liked of all children. It was found that children's friends are indeed similar to them while their enemies are dissimilar.

One hundred ninety-four children in the fourth through eighth grades were administered self-report questionnaires to measure hyperactivating and deactivating coping strategies with their parents and best friends. Subjects also completed a peer nomination inventory designed to assess the degree to which peers are aggressive and/or victimized. It was hypothesized that children who scored higher on hyperactivating strategies would be rated as higher in victimization and that children who scored higher on deactivating strategies would be rated as higher in aggression. It was also hypothesized that as children get older, other relationships besides that with the mother begin to play a major role in predicting children's behavior with peers. Results confirmed these hypotheses.

This study explored the social-cognitive functioning of aggressive and victimized elementary school children. Fourth- through seventh-grade male and female children (mean age 11.8 years) responded to four self-report questionnaires which assessed: (a) hostile attributional bias; (b) outcome expectancies for aggressive behavior; (c) outcome values for aggressive behavior; and (d) self-perceived efficacy for regulating three states of emotional arousal (anger, fear, and euphoria). Aggressive children, compared to nonaggressive children, expected aggression to result in control over their victims, did not expect retaliation from their victims, and did not care whether their victims tried to retaliate or not. Victimized children were more likely to expect retaliation for aggressing.

The stability of victimization (and of related variables, such as aggression and rejection) was explored over a two-year period. Subjects were 135 elementary school children (third through sixth graders) who were given the Victimization and Aggression Inventory (VAI) as well as a sociometric status measure. Two years later the measures were readministered. All three variables (victimization, aggression, and rejection) were found to be moderately stable over the two-year period, but stability varied with measure and with cohort (grade of child at first testing). Aggression was stable for all four cohorts whereas victimization was stable only for the older cohorts. Partial correlations revealed that the stability of victimization, but not aggression, was dependent to a large degree on children's rejection scores. Hierarchical regression analyses yielded evidence consistent with the hypothesis that rejection causes victimization.

Based on a peer nomination device measuring victimization and aggression (VAI), 172 children from grades four through seven were classified into four subgroups: aggressive victims, nonaggressive victims, aggressive nonvictims, and nonaggressive nonvictims. Another peer nomination inventory measuring 13 behavioral attributes (BAI) was used to assess behaviors correlated with the subject classifications. Distinctive behavioral profiles for the four subgroups were found. Of particular importance were findings supporting the hypothesis that two distinct types of victims exist: aggressive or "provocative" victims and nonaggressive or "passive" victims. Both types of victims lack prosocial skills and reinforce aggressive attacks by crying, but the two types of victims differ in how they elicit aggression. The provocative victim evidences disruptive behavior, blames others, has difficulty managing conflict, and is perceived as dishonest. The passive victim is withdrawn but expresses anxiety and depression, signalling vulnerability. Implications for conceptualization of peer problem behavior and for intervention are discussed.

It was hypothesized that victimized children are less able than other children to think of competent responses when in danger of being attacked by a peer. Two other factors hypothesized to influence the ability to generate competent responses were the subject's level of aggressiveness and the subject's sex. Subjects were 48 third through sixth graders. Children were read four scenarios describing provocative behavior toward them by a peer and asked to state all the things a child might do if the situation really happened. Results indicated that victim girls generated more incompetent responses than control girls (when controlled for redundancy), but victim status did not influence boy's data. Deficits were also found for high aggressive children and boys in their greater production (uncorrected for redundancies) of incompetent responses that were aggressive. It was concluded that victimized girls, but not boys may have cognitive deficits in response generation processes.

This thesis explored relationships between aggression
in elementary school children and two classes of social
cognitions that might influence children's decisions about
whether to behave aggressively. A first study compared
aggressive and nonaggressive children's perceptions of
their abilities to perform aggression and related behaviors
(or their "perceptions of self-efficacy" for the.:se behaviors).
Compared to nonaggressive children, aggressive subjects
reported that it is easier to perform aggression and more
difficult to inhibit aggression, but they did not differ in
reported ease of performing prosocial behavior or engaging
in verbal persuasion. A second study compared aggressive
and nonaggressive children's beliefs about the reinforcing
and punishing consequences of aggression (or their "response-outcome
expectations"). Aggressive children were more
confident that aggression would produce tangible rewards
and reduce aversive treatment. It was suggested that cognitive
models of aggression, such as that proposed by Dodge, may
profit from inclusion of concepts from cognitive social
learning theory.

Victimized children display debilitating thoughts, feelings and behaviors that may originate in family interactions and generalize to the peer group, causing children to be victimized by aggressive peers. This study tested the hypothesis that children's mental representations of their family experiences cause them to have reactions during peer interactions that lead to their victimization by peers. It was suggested that a perception of the self as helpless and a perception of the parent as controlling or threatening causes children to exhibit debilitated behavior among peers that contributes to their victimization. Also, certain perceptions of self and parent may contribute to aggression toward peers. Results for boys were in accord with hypotheses, in that both victimization and aggression were predicted by interactions of perceptions-of-self with perceptions-of-parent. Results for girls were less predictable from the formulation.