Aggression, friendship, and reconciliation in Russian primary schoolchildren

Aggression and reconciliation were studied in a group of 6- to 7-year-old R ussian school-children using the matched control approach and the two metho ds used in primate ethology-the postconflict period-matched control period and the time rule methods. Aggression was found to be positively correlated with friendly behavior at the dyadic level. It is demonstrated that childr en, like nonhuman primates, tend to reconcile within 1 min after the confli ct, Victims tend to redirect aggression at other individuals. No effect of gender on reconciliation was found. The reconciliation tendency is less exp ressed in friends than in children who are not friends. A new reconciliatio n measure is introduced, and an operational definition of friendship is sug gested. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.