Social-cognitive and behavioral correlates of aggression and victimizationin boys' play groups

A contrived play group procedure was utilized to examine the behavioral and social-cognitive correlates of reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and victimization via peers. Eleven play groups, each of which consisted of six familiar African-American 8-year-old boys, met for 45-min sessions on five consecutive days. Social-cognitive interviews were conducted following the second and fourth sessions. Play group interactions were videotaped an d examined by trained observers. High rates of proactive aggression were as sociated with positive outcome expectancies for aggression/assertion, frequ ent displays of assertive social behavior, and low rates of submissive beha vior. Reactive aggression was associated with hostile attributional tendenc ies and frequent victimization by peers. Victimization was associated with submissive behavior, hostile attributional bias, reactive aggression, and n egative outcome expectations for aggression/assertion. These results demons trate that there is a theoretically coherent and empirically distinct set o f correlates associated with each of the examined aggression subtypes, and with victimization by peers.