Teacher Reports of Peer Aggression in Preschool: its Relationship to DSM-IV Externalizing Symptoms (original) (raw)
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Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 2011
The distinctiveness of physical aggression from other antisocial behavior is widely accepted but little research has explicitly focused on young children to empirically test this assumption. A MTMM approach was employed to confirm the distinctiveness of physical aggression from nonaggressive antisocial behavior in early childhood. In addition, the convergent validity of teacher reports of physical aggression was investigated on a measure that contained age-appropriate behavior items selected from the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ). Assessments of physical aggression versus nonaggressive antisocial behavior of 117 kindergartners with different behavior profiles were obtained using three measures varying in source and/or method: 1) teacher reports on the PBQ, 2) short interviews with teachers, and 3) classroom observations. The MTMM matrix was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results provided reasonable support for the discrimination between physical aggression and nonaggressive antisocial behavior. In addition, strong support was found for the convergent validity of teacher-reported physical aggression using PBQ items.
A longitudinal study of relational and physical aggression in preschool
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2006
To understand the development of relational aggression during early childhood, 91 girls and boys (M age = 39.0; SD = 7.6 months) and their teachers participated in an 18-month longitudinal study. Children were observed for relational and physical aggression during free play in four time periods. Individually administered interviews were conducted to provide peer reports of relational and physical aggression. Teachers completed measures of relational and physical aggression and peer rejection. Findings support the psychometric properties of the observational methods for use during early childhood. Results suggest that girls are more relationally aggressive than male peers and boys are more physically aggressive than female peers. Moreover, children primarily direct their aggressive behavior at same-sex peers. Finally, relational aggression was found to be moderately stable during early childhood and was associated with future peer rejection problems. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of developing methods to investigate behavior patterns for understanding the early development of and future social-psychological risks that may be associated with relational aggression.
Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 2014
Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to determine if peer reactions to aggression among preschool youth were consistent with those conceptualized in the adolescent bullying literature as defenders, encouragers, and neutral bystanders. Research design: Direct observations were used to document patterns for types of peer-directed aggression in early childhood settings to ascertain interaction differences between individuals involved within the bullying dynamic. Methods and procedures: Observations of 50 students in preschool were conducted over 5.5 months. Event recording procedures were used to document aggressive behaviors and reactions from peers and teachers. Results: Results indicated that the majority of aggression was physical. Additionally, peer reactions, as described in the bullying literature for school-aged youth, occurred very infrequently. Conclusion: Peer aggression tended to be more physical, suggesting that early childhood educators should attend to these physical interactions, and cultivate a classroom community that emphasizes social supports and appropriate interactions.
The distinctiveness of physical aggression from other antisocial behavior is widely accepted but little research has explicitly focused on young children to empirically test this assumption. A MTMM approach was employed to confirm the distinctiveness of physical aggression from nonaggressive antisocial behavior in early childhood. In addition, the convergent validity of teacher reports of physical aggression was investigated on a measure that contained age-appropriate behavior items selected from the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ). Assessments of physical aggression versus nonaggressive antisocial behavior of 117 kindergartners with different behavior profiles were obtained using three measures varying in source and/or method: 1) teacher reports on the PBQ, 2) short interviews with teachers, and 3) classroom observations. The MTMM matrix was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results provided reasonable support for the discrimination between physical aggression and nonaggressive antisocial behavior. In addition, strong support was found for the convergent validity of teacher-reported physical aggression using PBQ items.
Teacher and Parent Perceptions of Relational and Physical Aggression During Early Childhood
Journal of Child and Family Studies
Although links have been found between parents' and teachers' (caregivers') attitudes about aggressive behavior, their responses to aggressive behaviour in children, and those children's own use of aggressive behaviour, most research has focused on primary and secondary school contexts and has examined the influence of parents and teachers separately. The current study explored both parents' and teachers' beliefs and intervention strategies for relational and physical aggression in early childhood settings. Teachers (N = 18; Mage = 34.8 years) and parents (N = 68; Mage = 32.2 years) were presented with vignettes portraying relational and physical aggression. Following each vignette, their perceptions of the seriousness of the act, empathy for the victim, likelihood to intervene, and intervention strategies used to respond to each vignette were assessed. Teachers were also interviewed about examples of aggression that have been seen in preschool age children. Results indicated that caregivers viewed relational compared to physical aggression as more normative, and had less empathy for, and were less likely to intervene in instances of relationally aggressive behaviour. They also recommended more passive intervention strategies towards relationally aggressive children and more direct strategies towards physically aggressive children. Interview responses indicated that teachers perceived the primary cause of aggression to be related to developmental characteristics of the child. Implications for how these findings about adult-child interactions impact the development of relational and physical aggression are discussed.
Relational Aggression in Children With Preschool-Onset Psychiatric Disorders
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2012
Objective-The role of preschool onset (PO) psychiatric disorders as correlates and/or risk factors for relational aggression during kindergarten or 1 st grade was tested in a sample of N = 146 preschool-age children (3 to 5.11). Method-Axis-I diagnoses and symptom scores were derived using the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment. Children's roles in relational aggression as aggressor, victim, aggressivevictim, or non-aggressor/non-victim were determined at preschool and again 24 months later at elementary school entry. Results-Preschoolers diagnosed with PO-psychiatric disorders were 3 times as likely as the healthy preschoolers to be classified aggressors, victims, or aggressive-victims. Children diagnosed with PO-disruptive, depressive, and/or anxiety disorders were at least 6 times as likely as children without PO-psychiatric disorders to become aggressive-victims during elementary school after covarying for other key risk factors. Conclusions-Findings suggested that PO-psychiatric disorders differentiated preschool and school-age children's roles in relational aggression based on teacher-report. Recommendations for future research and preventative intervention aimed at minimizing the development of relational aggression in early childhood by identifying and targeting PO-psychiatric disorders are made.
Preschoolers' aggression and parent–child conflict: A multiinformant and multimethod study
Journal of experimental child psychology, 2008
This multiinformant and multimethod study (N = 47) investigated the link between the parent-10 child relationship system and the display of physical and relational aggression with peers at school 11 during early childhood. Children (mean age = 43.54 months, SD = 8.02) were observed (80 min/ 12 child) during free play, and parents and teachers were asked to complete several standard measures. Intercorrelations between aggression subtypes revealed moderate to high levels of correlation for 14 parents and teachers and no significant association for observations of physical and relational 15 aggression. Interinformant agreement was examined, and teachers and parents were found to 16 significantly agree for both physical and relational aggression, and teachers and observers also 17 significantly agreed for both subtypes of aggression. Results of regression analyses suggest that 18 parent-child conflict was uniquely associated with relational aggression among peers when 19 controlling for physical aggression and gender. Ways in which these findings build on the extant 20 literature are discussed.
Children's aggressive and learning behavior, academic skills and cognitive development before school and in school, and children's adjustment in school is studied, using parent, preschool teacher and school teacher reports. Data were collected twice-first, in spring in preschool and, second, in fall in school. The participants were 151 6-7-year-old children (77 boys and 74 girls), their parents, preschool and school teachers. Preschool aggression and learning behaviors were related to school behaviors, skills and victimization. In addition to preschool teachers' reports, parents' reports had an additional predictive value for aggression. The concordance between preschool teachers' and parents' evaluations was not high.
Child Development Research, 2011
In this study, researchers wished to ascertain whether there were age (three- and four-year old), sibling (with or without older siblings), and sex (male and female) differences in the use of relational aggression in preschool students as rated by peers and teachers. In order to answer this research question, two 2 × 2 × 2 factorial ANOVA procedures with the relational aggression composite score as the dependent variable on the PSBS-P and PSBS-T were used for peer and teacher assessment, respectively, of relational aggression. Results revealed that in the peer ratings of preschool students' relationally aggressive behavior, there was an disordinal age by sibling interaction, in which four-year-old children with siblings were significantly more likely to be rated by their peers as using relational aggression than three-year-old children without siblings. In the teacher ratings of preschool students' relationally aggressive behavior, a main effect for age was observed. Teacher...
2018
We examined differential predictors (sex, age, prosocial behaviour, internalizing problems, and impulsivity) of teacher-rated aggression style (physically aggressive, relationally aggressive, or combined physically and relationally aggressive) in preschoolers (N = 429; M = 41.29, SD = 8.14) using multinomial logistic regression. Sex differentiated between aggression styles, such that being a boy was associated with an increased likelihood of being in the physically aggressive group relative to the non-aggressive group (OR = 2.44) or relative to the relationally aggressive group (OR = 4.35). Teacher’s reports of impulsivity also differed significantly across aggression styles, such that higher impulsivity was associated with an increased likelihood of being in either of the two physically aggressive groups (exclusive or combined) relative to the non-aggressive group, (OR = 11.21, OR = 16.65, respectively), or the exclusively relationally aggressive group, (OR = 4.28, OR = 6.35, respe...