Caught Between Stages: Relational Aggression Emerging as a Developmental Advance in At-Risk Preschoolers

Abstract

Eighty-two Head Start preschoolers were assessed with a peer rating measure of sociometric status, the Social Skills Rating System for Teachers (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), an Overt Aggression scale culled from items from the Aggressive Behavior subscale of the CBCL-TRF (Achenbach, 1997), and teacher ratings of relational aggression (Crick, Casas, & Mosher, 1997). In a regression model, overt aggression, age, social skills, and an interaction between social skills and overt aggression significantly predicted 27 percent of the variance in relational aggression. Being older, more overtly aggressive, and more socially skilled was predictive of increased relational aggression in this sample of Head Start students. The interaction indicated that at high and middle levels of social skills, relational and overt aggression significantly covaried, whereas at low levels of social skills this covariance was reduced to a trend. In other words, children with average or above average social skills were also significantly more aggressive—both relationally aggressive and overtly aggressive, which was not true for children with below average social skills. Interestingly, relational aggression appeared to be a developmental “advance” of sorts, developing commensurate with social skills, though not yet replacing the use of overt aggression. Of note for preschool educators, improvements in social skills may be associated with increases in indirect forms of aggression.