When “Sugar and Spice” Turn to “Fire and Ice”: Factors Affecting the Adverse Consequences of Relational Aggression among Adolescent Girls

Abstract

This study investigated factors affecting the relative harm of relationally aggressive acts among adolescent girls. One hundred twenty-seven high school girls completed a survey in which they described an event where another girl did something to them that was mean or hurtful. Girls also completed measures of the extent to which the aggressive act threatened their positive face, and the extent to which the aggressive act led them to experience negative affect. Results supported the prediction that aggressive acts committed by girls who were more popular than the victim were associated with greater perceived face threat and negative affect than aggressive acts committed by girls who were equally popular or less popular than the victim. In addition, events in which the perpetrator involved other individuals in the commission of aggression were associated with greater perceived face threat and greater negative affect than events in which the perpetrator acted alone. Contrary to predictions, degree of interpersonal closeness between the victim and the perpetrator just prior to the aggressive act was not associated with perceived face threat or degree of negative affect.

Keywords:

• Adolescent Girls
• Face Threat
• Politeness
• Relational Aggression
• Social Aggression

Data for this study were collected as part of the first author's thesis under direction of the second author. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the International Communication Association conference, San Francisco, CA, May 2007. The authors thank thesis committee members Drs. Sandra Metts and John Baldwin and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin K. Willer

Erin Willer (MS, Illinois State University, 2006) is a Doctoral Student in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

William R. Cupach

William Cupach is a Professor in the School of Communication, Illinois State University.