Interplay of normative beliefs and behavior in developmental patterns of physical and relational aggression in adolescence: a four-wave longitudinal study.

Barbara KrahÃ©,Robert Busching

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01146

Abstract

In a longitudinal study with N = 1,854 adolescents from Germany, we investigated patterns of change and gender differences in physical and relational aggression in relation to normative beliefs about these two forms of aggression. Participants, whose mean age was 13 years at T1, completed self-report measures of physically and relationally aggressive behavior and indicated their normative approval of both forms of aggression at four data waves separated by 12-month intervals. Boys scored higher than did girls on both forms of aggression, but the gender difference was more pronounced for physical aggression. Physical aggression decreased and relational aggression increased over the four data waves in both gender groups. The normative acceptance of both forms of aggression decreased over time, with a greater decrease for the approval of physical aggression. In both gender groups, normative approval of relational aggression prospectively predicted relational aggression across all data waves, and the normative approval of physical aggression predicted physically aggressive behavior at the second and third data waves. A reciprocal reinforcement of aggressive norms and behavior was found for both forms of aggression. The findings are discussed as supporting a social information processing perspective on developmental patterns of change in physical and relational aggression in adolescence.

Highlights

A growing body of longitudinal research has examined the developmental trajectories of aggressive behavior through childhood and adolescence
Based on the theorizing that relational aggression increases in line with increasing social-cognitive skills (Kaukiainen et al, 1999), we examined the proposition that relational aggression would increase in the course of the 3-year period, whereas physical aggression was expected to decline over time, because the increasing social skills promote awareness of the normative sanctioning of physical aggression
In line with Hypothesis 2, it was found that the gender difference was larger for physical than for relational aggression, b = −0.08, p < 0.001

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of longitudinal research has examined the developmental trajectories of aggressive behavior through childhood and adolescence (see Farrington, 2007; Krahé, 2013, for reviews). This research has yielded evidence of an age-normative decline of aggression as children get older, despite the fact that some children show persistently high or increasing levels of aggressive behavior (Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998; Moffitt, 2007). In understanding these developmental pathways, it has turned out to be fruitful to expand the traditional focus on physical aggression to include relational aggression as another modality in which aggressive behavior may be expressed. Past research has focused primarily on studying differences between physical and relational aggression in middle childhood (see Crick et al, 2007, for a summary), and far fewer studies are available to date that have extended the analysis of the two forms of aggression to adolescence (e.g., Werner and Nixon, 2005; Underwood et al, 2009; Cleverley et al, 2012)

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion