Elsevier

Journal of School Psychology

Volume 41, Issue 5, September–October 2003, Pages 355-375
Journal of School Psychology

Different forms of aggression among inner-city African–American children: Gender, configurations, and school social networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4405(03)00086-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Using narrative reports of peer conflicts among a sample of African–American children and adolescents from inner-city schools, this study investigated the development and social functions of four types of aggressive behaviors: social, direct relational, physical, and verbal aggression. A total of 489 participants in grades 1, 4, and 7 were interviewed (220 boys and 269 girls). Results showed that low levels of social aggression and high levels of physical aggression were reported in peer conflicts. Gender differences on social, direct relational, and physical aggression were primarily observed in the comparisons of same-gender conflicts at grade 7. Distinct configurations were identified across different forms of aggression. Boys with configurations of physical and/or verbal aggression had higher levels of school social network centrality than non-aggressive boys. Girls with configurations of social and/or direct relational aggression showed relatively higher levels of network centrality than non-aggressive girls.

Section snippets

The current study

We investigated subtle forms of aggression along with overt forms of aggression among inner-city African–American children and adolescents from three grade levels. Specifically, four distinct types of aggressive behaviors were included: social, direct relational, physical, and verbal aggression. Similar to the definitions used in previous publications (e.g., Xie, Swift, et al., 2002), social aggression refers to actions that cause interpersonal damage and are achieved by non-confrontational and

Participants

This study involved 489 participants in four inner-city public schools. Over 99% of students enrolled in these schools were African–American, and all participants in this study were African–American. There were 93 first graders (54 boys and 39 girls; mean age=6.98) and 142 fourth graders (67 boys and 75 girls; mean age=9.96) from two elementary schools, and 254 seventh graders (99 boys and 155 girls; mean age=13.09) from two middle schools. These schools were located in two neighborhoods of a

Conflict structure and aggressive behaviors

We examined the relations between the use of different aggressive strategies (i.e., social, direct relational, verbal, and physical) and conflict structure (i.e., dyadic, triadic, or multiple). About half (49%, 38/78) of the conflicts where social aggression was used had a triadic or multiple structure, while only 13% (13/97) of conflicts involving direct relational aggression, 9% of verbal aggression conflicts, and 6% of physical aggression conflicts did.1

Discussion

This study provided important information on the use of different forms of aggression in peer conflicts among African–American children and adolescents in inner-city schools. Using the same interview probes and coding scheme developed in a large-scale longitudinal study of rural and suburban children—the Carolina Longitudinal Study (e.g., Cairns & Cairns, 1994, Cairns et al., 1989, Xie et al., 2002, Xie et al., 2002)—we obtained parallel findings on patterns of conflict structure associated

Acknowledgements

The data presented in this study were collected as part of a larger project entitled “The Assessment of Aggression and Violence among Inner-city Youth”. Center for Disease Control and Prevention provided funds (R40 CCR403641) to the Injury Control Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to support this project. Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation provided funds to the first author for conducting narrative analyses of peer conflicts. We thank Dylan Swift, Jason Clemmer, Tom

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