Forms of Aggression, Social-Psychological Adjustment, and Peer Victimization in a Japanese Sample: The Moderating Role of Positive and Negative Friendship Quality

Abstract

The purpose of these studies was to examine the frequency and stability of relational and physical aggression and their associations with social-psychological adjustment or peer victimization, and how friendships are involved in the relations between forms of aggression and peer victimization in Japanese children. The sample consisted of 452 (Study 1) and 138 (Study 2) children who were in the fourth and fifth grades. Results of Study 1 demonstrated that relational aggression was uniquely and more strongly associated with internalizing adjustment problems than physical aggression. Moreover, Study 2 revealed that relational aggression and physical aggression were stable over a 6-month period and the stability of relational aggression was reinforced by negative friendships (i.e., high levels of exclusivity and friend victimization). Further, the association between relational aggression and relative increases in relational victimization was attenuated by positive friendships (i.e., high levels of intimacy, companionship, and friendship satisfaction). Interestingly, friendships were unrelated to physical aggression and its relation to physical victimization. The age and gender of the children in the two studies were also examined. Cultural and developmental processes involving forms of aggression, friendships, social-psychological adjustment, and peer victimization were discussed.

Integrating Etiological Models of Social Anxiety and Depression in Youth: Evidence for a Cumulative Interpersonal Risk Model

“…In younger samples, after controlling for direct/overt victimization, self-reported indirect/covert relational victimization has been found to be: (1) uniquely related to 4th-and 5th-grade Japanese children's depression (Kawabata et al 2010) and (2) related to 5th-and 6th-grade girls' and not boys' depression in a mostly Hispanic and African American sample (Storch et al 2003c). However, Cole et al (2010) recently found no gender differences in relations between victimization and depression when they assessed overt and covert peer victimization via self, parent, and peer informants in a sample composed of largely Caucasian 3rd through 6th graders.…”

Beziehungen zu Gleichaltrigen

“…Solchen Kindern geht es erheblich besser, wenn sie mehrere reziproke (beidseitige) Freundschaftsbeziehungen haben (Hodges et al 1999;Schwartz et al 1999), wenn ihre Freunde sie verteidigen können und bei den Peers beliebt sind und die Macht besitzen, sie zu verteidigen (Hodges et al 1997) und wenn ihre Freundschaften qualitativ hochwertig sind, wenn sie die Freunde also als hilfreich erleben und als Menschen, die ihnen Vertrautheit und Sicherheit verschaffen (Kawabata et al 2010;Schmidt und Bagwell 2007).…”

“…Angefangen bei Kanada, Italien und Griechenland bis hin zu Indonesien und China neigen beispielsweise sozial abgelehnte Kinder in vielen Ländern dazu, aggressiv zu sein und zu stören; und in den meisten Ländern werden beliebte (d. h. gern gemochte) Kinder in der Regel so beschrieben, dass sie sich prosozial verhalten und Führungsqualitäten besitzen (Attili et al 1997;Chung-Hall und Chen 2010;French et al 1999;Gooren et al 2011;Hatzichristou und Hopf 1996;Kawabata et al 2010;Schwartz et al 2010;Tomada und Schneider 1997;Walker 2009;Xu et al 2004).…”

“…Aggression scheint manchmal im Gegenzug Schikanen von Peers hervorzurufen (Barker et al 2008;Kawabata et al 2010).…”

Associations Between Fifth Graders’ Gender Atypical Problem Behavior and Peer Relationships: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

“…The premise that friendship is protective is based on evidence that peers are less inclined to victimize youth who are well connected to their peer group (e.g., possess allies; Veenstra et al 2007) or have friends who are capable of retaliating against bullies' transgressions (Hodges et al 1997. Indeed, an accruing body of evidence provides support for the perspective that friendship attenuates risk for peer victimization among nonwithdrawn and nonaggressive samples of British, French-Canadian, and Japanese children and adolescents (e.g., Boulton et al 1999;Hodges et al 1997Kawabata et al 2010). To our knowledge, past researchers have yet to elucidate whether or not friendship buffers risk for rejection and exclusion, but it is conceivable that friendship likewise protects against these social maladies.…”