Teacher, parent and student assessment of social, internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors among three types of aggressive students

Childhood aggression studies have demonstrated that boys express more physically aggressive behaviors than girls. Recent gender-related aggression research has found girls express aggression in a different stylistic manner i.e., using indirect aggression. Bjorkqvist & Osterman (1995) state indirect aggression is when a person "is able to induce psychological, sometimes even physical harm to a target person by mere social manipulation, without putting him/herself at direct risk of retaliation". In contrast, direct verbal aggression refers to verbal aggression addressed directly to the victim. If these differences in the expression of aggression exist, then prior research has omitted indirect aggression as defined by Bjorkqvist and Osterman (1995). Therefore, connections made between aggression and social problem behaviors, internalizing behaviors and externalizing behaviors in children have not considered indirect aggression nor made a clear distinction between direct verbal aggression and indirect aggression.;This study examined three types of aggression as determined by peer ratings in a sample of 115 suburban private school fifth and eight grade students. Internalizing, externalizing and social problem behavior data as determined by parents, teachers, and self-ratings, were collected and analyzed in light of peer-ratings of aggressive behavior. Teachers predicted the student ratings of aggressive behavior to assess the correlation between students and teachers as data sources.;Results found significant differences between male and female students in the physical and direct verbal types of aggression, but no differences were found between gender or grade on indirect aggression. The grade and interaction effects of gender and grade were not significant. Teacher report of external problem behaviors significantly predicted physical aggression and indirect aggression types. Direct verbal aggression was significantly predicted by teacher report of external problem behaviors and the family stressor of divorce. Lastly, teacher prediction of the aggressive ratings assigned by fellow students were significantly correlated with the corresponding student ratings of physical aggression, direct verbal aggression and indirect aggression. Discussion of the findings were presented in relation to past research. Implications for future research were offered.