Conflict, aggression, and peer status: an observational study.

Children's conflicts with one another during free play were observed to determine the relation between a child's rate of conflict participation and his or her rate of aggressive behavior during conflict episodes, and between these variables and the degree to which the child was liked or disliked by peers. 4 ad hoc play groups of 12 boys and 4 groups of 12 girls were formed. Each group included an equal number of first and second graders, and was observed for 10 1-hour play sessions. Sociometric interviews were conducted both before and after the set of 10 play sessions. Rate of conflict participation was positively related both to the percentage of physical (but not verbal) aggression exhibited per conflict episode and to the frequency of both types of aggression over the entire session. Although being liked by peers was not related to either conflict or aggression, being disliked was: Postsession dislike scores were primarily related to rate of conflict participation, not to the incidence of aggressive behavior. These patterns were characteristic of both boys and girls.

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