Relationships of Aggression Subtypes and Peer Status Among Aggressive Boys in General Education and Emotional/Behavioral Disorder (EBD) Classrooms

Abstract

This study examines the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between reactive and proactive aggression and children's peer status. Participants were 94 Dutch elementary school-aged boys in self-contained special education classrooms for students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) and 47 boys with no disabilities in general education classrooms. Hierarchical and logistic regression analyses were conducted to test how aggression, context, and their interactions predicted participants' peer status, which encompassed social preference and social impact as indicated by classroom peers. Descriptive analyses show that both reactive and proactive aggression were more common in EBD classrooms. Classroom type moderated the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between subtypes of aggression and social preference. The results indicate that to understand the relationship between aggression and children's peer status, it is important to analyze the specific type of aggressive behavior and the context in which it occurs. These findings also suggest the importance of students and teachers' responses to aggression in reducing aggressive behavior.