Citation

Card NA, Hodges EV. Dev. Psychol. 2006; 42(6): 1327-1338.

Affiliation

Department of Family Studies and Human Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0033, USA. ncard@email.arizona.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0012-1649.42.6.1327

PMID

17087564

Abstract

Similarity in early adolescent friends' general aggressiveness is well known, but questions remain regarding the degree to which friends aggress against the same victims. The authors examined this by administering the newly created Dyadic Aggression and Victimization Inventory to 417 sixth- through eighth-grade boys and girls (53%). Friends were found to share more targets for aggression than nonfriends, even after general levels of aggression were controlled (all ps < .05). Moreover, greater sharing of targets with friends relative to nonfriends was more pronounced among aggressive youths than nonaggressive youths, especially among aggressive youths' best friends relative to their other friends. Generally, these findings were similar across boys and girls as well as among older and younger youths. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Language: en