Relational and overt aggression in preschool: Links to social information processing, language development, and social-emotional functioning

The current study sought to replicate and expand on a growing body of literature examining relational and overt aggression and social information processing in preschool age children. Participants were 103 children enrolled in Head Start Preschool Programs in a community in upstate New York. Children completed measures of social information processing, language development, and self-esteem. Children's teachers reported on children's relational and overt aggression, emotional and behavioral problems, and social skills. A subsample of 73 parents of children participating in the study also completed measures of social information processing and rated children's emotional and behavioral problems. Results revealed that there was a gender difference in relational and overt aggression, with girls showing higher rates of relational aggression and boys showing higher rates of overt aggression. There was a trend for higher rates of expressive language skills to be related to higher levels of relational aggression, and for this finding to be specific to boys. Relational and overt aggression were linked to a variety of other social-emotional problems with relational aggression particularly linked to higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems in girls. Analyses revealed a number of significant correlations between children's social information processing and social-emotional problems. There were also significant relationships between parental social information processing and children's social information processing and social-emotional functioning. The results of the present study provide initial evidence for the importance of studying social information processing in preschool age children and the links between parental social information processing and children's attributions and behaviors in young children.