A Longitudinal Study Of Peer Relationship,Children's Reactive And Proactive Aggression

Aggression is widespread among children and is closely related to their social adaptation.Previous research has shown that peer relationship is highly correlated with children's aggression,but the cause and effect of the relationship between them has been inconclusive.The causality between peer relationship and subcategories of aggression——reactive aggression and proactive aggression—has less been studied.This study intends to use longitudinal design to explore the causality between peer relationship and reactive/proactive aggression.1380 students were selected from 1 to 5 grade in a primary school in Nankai District,Tianjin by cluster sampling method.We conducted two data collections at an interval of 8 moths.Peer relationship was measured by peer nomination.Each child nominated at least three most like and three least like.According to the number of nominations,peer relationships are divided into two dimensions:social preference and social influence.Children's reactive aggression and proactive aggression are measured by head teacher by completing the "reactive and proactive aggression questionnaire".The study uses the cross-lagged model to examine the causality between peer relationship(social preference and social influence)and the aggression(reactive aggression and proactive aggression).The results show that:(1)children's proactive aggression can positively predict social influence;(2)there is no prediction between reactive aggression and social influence;(3)social preference can negatively predict children's reactive aggression;(4)social preference negatively predicts children's proactive aggression.The results of this study show that examining the relationship between peer relationship and child aggression need to distinguish different types of aggression and different indicators of peer relationship.The research results have theoretical significance in revealing the causality between peer relationship and aggression,and have practical value in the prevention and treatment of aggression.