Relational Aggression at School: Associations with School Safety and Social Climate

There has been much debate as to whether to refer to socially manipulate, interpersonally harmful behavior as relational aggression (Crick 1995; Crick and Grotpeter 1995), indirect aggression (Björkqvist 1994; Lagerspetz et al. 1988) or social aggression (Cairns et al. 1989; Galen and Underwood 1997). Although the definitions of each of these behaviors do vary (e.g., indirect aggression pertains to aggression where the perpetrator remains anonymous, however in the cases of relational and social aggression the perpetrator can be either known or unknown), in practice the measurement of these constructs typically focuses on very similar socially manipulate behaviors. The term relational aggression is used in the present manuscript, because as the construct was measured the aggressor’s identity was not necessarily anonymous (as is the case for indirect aggression) and because there was no measure of subtle facial cues or gestures (which are a key part in the definition of social aggression). These issues are discussed in greater detail in Archer (2001), Björkqvist (2001) and Underwood et al. (2001a, b).

In the present manuscript physical and direct verbal aggressive behaviors are referred to as overt aggression. This term was selected so that these behaviors could be directly contrasted with the relationship-focused harm inflicted by relational aggression. It is recognized that other terms may have also been appropriate, such as physical/verbal aggression.