"Relational aggression" refers to hurtful behavior aimed at damaging a person's relationships or social standing, such as spreading rumors, excluding someone, or manipulating others to turn against them.
Full definition
Some parents themselves without even realizing it model mild forms
of relational aggression with a spouse, other adults or family members in their lives.
The psychological term is known
as relational aggression: intentionally hurting another person through the relationship.
The goals would be to teach how to deal
with relational aggression, as well as strategies for relationship building and problem solving.
Parental alienation is a form of
relational aggression by one parent against the other parent using their common children.
In addition, increases in friend intimate exchange were associated with time - dependent increases in
relational aggression among girls only.
Some scholars found that males tended to display physical aggression, whereas females exhibited relational aggression [19].
As physical aggression declines, face - to - face verbal aggression increases, followed by social and
relational aggression around 4 - 5 years of age.
Above and beyond these effects, stable cool students and those who became cool by spring displayed increases in
relational aggression relative to the group who was never cool (See Table 2).
This type
of relational aggression includes things like sharing sexual secrets or spreading lies and rumors about the target's sexual activity.
Physical and
relational aggression in preschoolers: gender differences and links to language ability and social competence.
Other forms of
reported relational aggression included intimidating or contemptuous looks, continuous harassment, verbal attacks, social exclusion, theft and destruction of property.
Self - esteem, the quality of friendships with other girls, and levels of
reactive relational aggression are significant predictors of peer victimization.
A short - term longitudinal study of growth in
relational aggression during middle childhood: Associations with gender, friendship intimacy, and internalizing problems
The research was conducted with college students, but
since relational aggression peaks during the tween years, the findings would have likely only been stronger if examined in tweens.
Partly due to their lowered self - esteem, victims of
relational aggression often resort to self - abusive and risky behaviors to manage their emotions.
Overall, the findings suggest
relational aggression becomes increasingly common among elementary school girls, and girls» close, dyadic relationships may fuel relationally aggressive behavior in some contexts.
Social or
relational aggression Parents, teachers, and even researchers have been so preoccupied with physical aggression that they have tended to overlook other forms of hostility, especially those that are more social or relational in nature.
Finally, the results indicate that
relational aggression trajectories are dynamically associated with maladjustment.This study was funded by grants from NIMH (MH63684) and NSF (BCS - 0126521) to N. C. Crick.
Despite the importance in better understanding these behaviors, numerous questions remain regarding the validity of different informants and methods for
assessing relational aggression.
Chronically ill children were characterized by teachers as displaying less prosocial behavior, less overt aggression, and
less relational aggression with peers than healthy children.