The relationship between relational aggression in preschool children and friendship stability, mutuality, and popularity

The present research examined relational aggression in preschool children and how it relates to aspects of their friendships.;The purpose of the study was to look at whether these relationships would also hold for relational aggression. Further, a short-term longitudinal study tested whether relational aggression could predict popularity (liking) and friendship stability and mutuality two months in the future.;Participants were 74 boys and girls (ages 5 and 6; 35% Caucasian, 22% Asian/Pacific Islanders, 16% Latino/Hispanic, 8% African American, 19% mixed ethnicity or "other") enrolled in private preschool programs; 52 of these also participated in time 2 assessments. The Preschool Social Behavior Scale (PSBS) peer and teacher forms (Crick et al., 1997) measured relational aggression and overt aggression. Teacher and peer reports of relational and overt aggression showed good internal consistency at both time 1 and time 2 (alphas ranged from .88 to .94). The time 1-time 2 test-retest correlations for peer nominations of relational aggression and overt aggression were .74 and .84 respectively. Popularity (liking) was measured using Denham and Holt's (1993) method in which children placed pictures of each participating child into boxes labeled with smiling, frowning and neutral faces based on how much they hiked each child. Consistent with previous research, test-retest reliability was good (.71). Number of mutual friends was assessed by asking each child to select pictures of participating classmates they considered to be friends; if both children selected each other, they were considered "mutual friends." Friendship stability was indexed by the number of mutual friends at time 1 who also met the criteria for mutual friendship at time 2.;Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the relationship between relational aggression and the friendship variables. Results showed that peer nominations of relational aggression were negatively related to time 1 liking, time 1 number of mutual friends, and friendship stability even when teacher ratings of overt aggression were controlled. Overt aggression was also significantly related to these variables. Further, relational aggression significantly predicted the number of mutual friendships and liking two months later (controlling for initial levels of these variables). Gender did not interact with relational aggression in predicting any of these variables. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...