The Peer Nature of Relational Aggression

Relational aggression (RA), which involves the manipulation of a target’s relationships, peer status, or reputation, is an inherently interpersonal weapon. This chapter focuses on the peer context of RA, and addresses core questions about the association between RA and social constructs such as group acceptance, rejection, popularity, and friendship. What are the interpersonal costs and benefits of RA? What factors might explain why some relationally aggressive children are able to achieve and maintain popularity and social centrality despite being disliked? How does RA play out within mutual friendships? And how do the peer dynamics surrounding RA shift across development? The chapter begins with a discussion of RA in relation to group-level peer experiences (i.e., peer liking/acceptance; disliking/rejection; perceived popularity) and then turns to an exploration of RA within the context of friendships. It concludes with a discussion of selection and influence effects in regard to relationally aggressive behavior.

Adolescent resource control

This study examined adolescent coercive and prosocial resource control strategies in relation to various indices of peer-reported behaviors and peer regard ( N = 384; 12–14 years). Coercive control was uniquely positively related to physical and relational aggression and peer disliking, and negatively to prosocial behaviors when controlling for prosocial control, which, in turn, was uniquely negatively related to physical aggression and social withdrawal, and positively to prosocial behaviors, peer liking, and popularity. Findings from person-centered analyses augmented these findings, indicating that bi-strategic, coercive, prosocial, typical, and non-controllers exhibit divergent patterns of social adjustment among peers. Implications for the study of adolescent social adjustment are discussed, including increased understanding of adolescent resource control and aggression among peers at school.