Child and Parent Perceptions of Relational Aggression Within Urban Predominantly African American Children’s Friendships: Examining Patterns of Concordance

Abstract

Increasing research documents the negative short-and long-term effects of relational aggression on children's behavior and social-emotional functioning. Although parents likely play an important role in the way children learn to cope with and attempt to resolve relational aggression, there is little research on this issue. The present study explored children and parents' beliefs concerning relational aggression and the children's use of coping strategies when experiencing relational aggression in close friendships. Fifty-four low-income, urban, predominantly African American children and a parent/guardian participated in the current study. Findings suggest that the children and their parents were largely discordant in their perceptions of relational aggression and the way the children cope with being a victim of relational aggression. Although the vast majority of parents perceived that their children would come to them for support when experiencing relational aggression, the girls were most likely to report going to teachers, whereas boys were most likely to go to another adult. These results enhance our understanding of how parents and children view relationally aggressive behaviors and may inform the development of strategies to help children cope with relational aggression.

Relational, Social, and Overt Aggression among Aggressive and Nonaggressive Female Adolescents

“…However, the victimization rates in the African American girls in the Williams et al (2009) study (12.8%) were markedly higher than those observed in the Caucasian samples, which were reported at 8% (Crick & Bigbee, 1998;Crick & Grotpeter, 1996). In a study examining 54 fourth and fifth grade urban public school children's (53.7% = female) beliefs about relational aggression, 68% of boys and 72.4% of girls indicated that relational aggression happens to children of their age (Waasdorp & Bradshaw, 2009). David and Kistner (2000) found that African American elementary school children received more peer nominations for demonstrating overt and relational aggression than Caucasian children in their sample, while Crothers, Field, and Kolbert (2005) discovered that ninth and tenth grade African American girls were more likely to identify with traditional masculine characteristics and report using relational aggression significantly less than White participants.…”

A Multilevel Perspective on the Climate of Bullying: Discrepancies Among Students, School Staff, and Parents

“…The witnesses’ response likely varies by the form of bullying, such as whether the act was overt (e.g., teasing, name calling, hitting, kicking) or indirect (e.g., social exclusion, rumors, stealing). In fact, adults often underestimate how harmful students view indirect bullying behaviors (Mishna et al, 2006; Waasdorp & Bradshaw, 2009), which in turn influences how they intervene (Bauman & Del Rio, 2006). Recently studies have shown that witnessing indirect bullying is associated with feeling less safe and weapon carrying (Goldstein, Young, & Boyd, 2008; Kuppens, Grietens, Onghena, Michiels, & Subramanian, 2008).…”

“…For example, parent-child communication about bullying can shape how the child views and responds to these behaviors. Parents can also influence a child’s perceptions of bullying by underestimating the harm associated with bullying (Waasdorp & Bradshaw, 2009) or not contacting the school when issues arise (Waasdorp, Bradshaw, & Duong, 2010). Although few studies have examined parents’ perceptions of the bullying climate, it is important to determine the extent to which their opinions are related to student and staff perceptions.…”

Early Predictors of Child's Bully and Victim Statuses: A Longitudinal Investigation Using Parent, Teacher, and Student Reports From National Data

“…The results of the Stevens et al (2002) study, much like the work from Haynie et al (2001), found that parents reported higher rates of cohesion and expressiveness within the family than their children. Additional studies (Waasdorp et al, 2011;Ahn et al, 2013) have also discovered discrepancies between teachers' and students' reports of bullying, while other research (Stockdale et al, 2002;Waasdorp and Bradshaw, 2009) has also found disconnects between parent and child reports. A recent study by Hwang et al (2017) even found that discrepancies between peer and self-report were related to higher levels of reported behavioral problems later in the year.…”