| Although relational aggression is defined as an attempt to harm others through the manipulation of social relationships, few studies have explored the role of peer social networks in the use of these behaviors by children and adolescents. The current study adopted a structural approach to the study of relational aggression among urban, elementary school students. A subset of 99 students with parental consent and seven teachers provided behavioral and social network data on 144 demographically diverse third through eighth grade students at one urban Midwestern elementary school. Descriptive findings revealed demographic differences in features of children's grade-level peer networks. Although girls had smaller grade-level networks than boys, a significant grade by sex interaction revealed that these sex differences attenuated as children grew older. There was also a significant quadratic relationship between grade and ego network density for third through seventh grade students, suggesting evidence of a "degrouping process" in early adolescence. As hypothesized, features of individuals' grade-level peer social networks influenced levels of teacher-rated and peer-nominated relational aggression above and beyond demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, grade, and race). Results revealed that ego network density had a significant positive effect on teacher-rated relational aggression. Moreover, network size had a significant quadratic effect on peer-nominated relational aggression. These findings reveal that relational aggression is influenced not only by who children are, but also by where they are located in their peer social networks. Implications for future research and intervention are offered. |
