Evaluations of relational aggression as a function of relationship type and conflict setting

The present study examined influences on girls' evaluations of relational a ggression situations. Second-, third-, fifth-, and sixth-grade girls evalua ted four relational aggression conflict scenarios in terms of attributions of aggressor's intentions, evaluator's behavioral response, evaluator's aff ective state, and how likely the situation was to actually occur. Girls eva luated intentions of a best friend more positively, reported being more mad at an enemy, and perceived conflict to be more likely to occur with an ene my than a best friend. Aggressor intentions in direct conflict scenarios (a ggressor said something mean to evaluator) were perceived as more negative than aggressor intentions in indirect conflict scenarios (aggressor said so mething mean about evaluator to another peer). Younger girls reported inten tions of their enemy as being more positive than did older girls. Further, older girls reported intentions of their best friend as being more positive than intentions of their enemy. Older girls also were more accurate in con ceptualizing variations in the conflict setting (direct, indirect) and resp onding in a context-consistent manner, Findings are discussed in terms of t he social-relational and social-situational processes that influence childr en's evaluations of relational aggression and how the current study extends previous research on relational aggression. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.