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Relational Aggression and Hostile Attribution Biases: Testing Multiple Statistical Methods and Models

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Abstract

The present study used both categorical and dimensional approaches to test the association between relational and physical aggression and hostile intent attributions for both relational and instrumental provocation situations using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (M = 8.3 years-old, SD = 0.19, N = 840). A one standard deviation threshold was used to create categorical aggression status groups. In categorical analyses, children who were both relationally and physically aggressive were found to attribute more hostile intent attributions in relationally provocative situations. Results from the dimensional analyses indicated that female gender, physical aggression, and hostile attribution biases for instrumental provocations each predicted increases in relational aggression over time. Further, relational aggression was not predictive of hostile attribution biases for relational provocations, and instead physical aggression was predictive. Implications for the fields of developmental psychology and psychopathology are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Mother-report data (n = 903) was also analyzed and results were examined using the same statistical procedures. Deviations between mother- and teacher-report in predicting the various dependent variables are available by contacting the first author. Teacher-report was used instead of mother-report as teachers might be more valid informants of peer relations and aggression as teachers may be more objective and at reduced risk of social desirability concerns. Further, teachers are cited as being more appropriate reporters of relational aggression due to the externalizing nature of the behavior in middle childhood (Crick et al. 2007). There is also limited use of the Children Behavior with Peers measure with parents, as it is most frequently used with teachers (e.g., Crick 1996; Crick et al. 1996) and parent-report of relational aggression appears to be of questionable psychometric properties (Casas et al. 2006).

  2. Two 4 (Aggression status: Relational, physical, comorbid, non-aggressive) x 2 (Racial Status: Minority and non-minority status) x 2 (Gender) ANOVA’s were conducted with either child-reported hostile attribution biases for relational provocations or instrumental provocations as the dependent variable. There were no significant main effects of racial status [F(1, 840) = 1.66, p = 0.20, ηp 2 = 0.002 for relational provocations and F(1, 840) = 2.05, p = 0.15, ηp 2 = 0.002 for instrumental provocations] and no significant interactions with racial status.

  3. Simple effects of the physical aggression by gender interaction predicting instrumental hostile attribution biases were also run considering physical aggression as dichotomous (i.e., either no reported aggression or reported aggression). Using this criterion physical aggression was a significant predictor of instrumental hostile attribution biases above and beyond relational aggression and gender when there was reported aggression [F(3,156) = 2.86, p = 0.039, R 2 = 0.052].

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Acknowledgments

The contributions and assistance of the entire Early Child Care Research Network, NICHD and RTI staff is greatly appreciated. We thank Dr. Leonard J. Simms for extensive methodological feedback and consultation on an earlier version of this manuscript. We thank Dr. Craig R. Colder for statistical consultation. We also thank Joshua Clapp and Rebecca Ashare for their comments on a previous draft. We acknowledge the families, teachers and administrators of participating schools.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 226 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY, 14260-4110, USA

    Stephanie A. Godleski & Jamie M. Ostrov

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Correspondence to Stephanie A. Godleski.

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Godleski, S.A., Ostrov, J.M. Relational Aggression and Hostile Attribution Biases: Testing Multiple Statistical Methods and Models. J Abnorm Child Psychol 38, 447–458 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-010-9391-4

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