Group social context and children's aggressive behavior.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Very little is known about the influence of the social-psychological context on children's aggressive behavior. The purpose of this research was to examine the interrelations of group contextual factors and the occurrence of aggressive behavior in 22 experimental play groups of 7- and 9-year-old African-American boys. Group context was examined before, during, and after an aggressive act as well as during nonaggressive periods. The results showed that there are dimensions of group context (i.e., negative affect, high aversive behavior, high activity level, low group cohesion, competitiveness) that were related to the occurrence of aggressive behavior between 2 children in the group. Group context influenced how children reacted to aggression between its members (e.g., siding with the victim), which in turn influenced the quality of the postaggression group atmosphere. This study suggests that individual-within-context information be incorporated into theories of aggression among children.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • DeRosier, ME; Cillessen, AH; Coie, JD; Dodge, KA

Published Date

  • August 1994

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 65 / 4

Start / End Page

  • 1068 - 1079

PubMed ID

  • 7956465

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1467-8624

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0009-3920

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00803.x

Language

  • eng