Differentiating between relational and physical aggression

Differentiating between relational and physical aggression has been a prominent feature of several developmental studies in North America and Western Europe, despite the fact that there is little information on relational aggression in more diverse cultural settings ( Lansford et al., 2012). Violence in children is of particular interest, not only because of its harmful effects on individuals, but also because of the long-term negative growth consequences associated with being a perpetrator of aggression in infancy. Both relational and physical aggressiveness are characterized by the ability to bring harm to another person, though relational aggression is primarily linked with destroying another person’s social connections through activities such as spreading rumor, marginalizing an individual from a peer group among other forms of discrimination, physical aggression is demonstrated with such acts like hitting someone (Dayton and Malone, 2017).

Study participants

Many studies have concluded that boys portrays more of physical aggression than girls and girls are more of relational aggressive than boys. To find out if this is true 36 children of ages between 7 years and 10 years were selected 56% boys and 44% girls selected from socioeconomically diverse population in Durham North Carolina. Children were given written letters to take to their parents and returned when duly signed by the parents as a sign that they have agreed to be included in the study, 36 letters were signed and returned concluding to 36 participants of the study population.

Data collection and analysis methods

Behavior Frequency Scale was used to collect information on relational and physical aggression in both boys and girls in the study. The following activities were undertaken to measure on relational aggression: marginalizing one child from peer group, saying mean things about selected child to make the children dislike that child and making fun of another child so that the rest can laugh at that child, while physical aggression activities included slapping an individual, throwing something at selected and pushing the a selected child (Zimmer-Gembeck, & Duffy, 2014). Both the relational and physical aggression activities were to test their reaction and information recorded. Data was analyzed using Multivariate and Univariate tests to determine differences in girls and boys in relation to relational and physical aggression activities reaction (Lansford et al., 2012).

Results

There exists a relational and physical aggression in both boys and girls portrayed by the reaction they show during the various physical and relational aggression activities undertaken. From the data collected, the multivariate analysis and univariate shows that boys are more physically aggressive than girls the variance ranges from 1.3 in boys and 0.8 in girls whereas girls are more of relational aggressive than boys the variance ranges from 1.5 in girls and 1.1 in boys (Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2013).

Discussion

From the results it can be concluded that boys’ aggression develops since childhood and it is triggered by cultural factors such as stereotypes whereby a male figure is considered strong and has to do all things possible to defend themselves, also, the environmental factors such as hardship and insecure areas where one resides teaches the boys how be defendant of their community (Björkqvist, 2017).

In conclusion, further research needs to be conducted on boys’ aggression more so clear evidences on factors that make them more aggressive based on study population across the world and in different cultural setting. Most of the studies on boys’ aggression has been conducted in Western Europe and North America which does not give a clear picture of what could be happening in other countries in terms of gender reactions to physical and relational aggression.

References

Björkqvist, K. (2017). Gender Differences in Aggression. Current Opinion in Psychology.

Dayton, C. J., & Malone, J. C. (2017). Development and socialization of physical aggression in very young boys. Infant mental health journal, 38(1), 150-165.

Lansford, J. E., Skinner, A. T., Sorbring, E., Giunta, L. D., Deater‐Deckard, K., Dodge, K. A., ... & Uribe Tirado, L. M. (2012). Boys’ and girls’ relational and physical aggression in nine countries. Aggressive behavior, 38(4), 298-308.

Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Pronk, R. E., Goodwin, B., Mastro, S., & Crick, N. R. (2013). Connected and isolated victims of relational aggression: Associations with peer group status and differences between girls and boys. Sex roles, 68(5-6), 363-377.

Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., & Duffy, A. L. (2014). Heightened emotional sensitivity intensifies associations between relational aggression and victimization among girls but not boys: A longitudinal study. Development and psychopathology, 26(3), 661-673.