Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type

In recent research a relationally oriented form of aggression has been identified that, in contrast to overt aggression that harms others through physical means (e.g., hitting), harms others through damage to their peer relationships (e.g., angrily retaliating against a peer by excluding her from one's play group). The goal this research was to assess the role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type (relational vs. instrumental) in children's relationally aggressive behavior. A total of 252 third- through sixth-grade children participated as subjects. A hypothetical provocation instrument was used to assess children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for ambiguous relational and instrumental provocation situations. Results showed that, as hypothesized, relationally aggressive children exhibited a hostile attributional bias and reported significantly higher levels of distress than did their nonaggressive peers for relational provocation situations. In addition, girls reported significantly higher levels of distress than did boys for relational provocation situations. Further, a comorbid group of relationally plus overtly aggressive children also exhibited a hostile attributional bias; however, their bias was evident for instrumental provocation situations only.

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