Overt and Relational Aggression on the Playground: Correspondence Among Different Informants

Abstract Recent research has focused on subtypes of children's aggressive behavior (e.g., instrumental, bullying, relational). However, little work with preschool children has explored intermethod agreement involving teacher ratings, peer behavior nominations, and playground behavior observations for these three different forms of aggression. This study attempted to fill this gap in the literature by using all three methods to examine aggressive subtypes of playground behavior in preschool as related to SES and gender. Data involving aggressive behavior of 241 4- to 5-year-old children in Head Start and university preschool programs were collected from peers, teachers, and observers. Results indicated that peers, teachers, and observers differentiated between general categories of relational aggression and overt aggression. However, peers did not distinguish between overt instrumental and bullying aggression. Peers viewed relational aggression, but not overt aggression, as being associated with anger and ...