The Nature, Nurture and Networks of Girls' Intrasexual Relational Bullying

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Meta-analytic evidence supports a division in gender-typical aggressive behavior, with girls favouring indirect, relational forms of aggression (Archer, 2004; Bettencourt & Miller, 1996; Card et al., 2008). Not only does the extant research suggest that girls tend to employ relational aggression as opposed to other methods, it also indicates that they typically direct their relational aggression towards each other (Paquette & Underwood, 1999). The research presented in this talk investigates the group-level social contexts and individual characteristics that give rise to early adolescent girls’ perpetration of intrasexual relational bullying through the application of the three diverse yet complimentary lenses of evolutionary theory, social learning theory, and social network analysis. Participants were girls in grades 6-8 (N= 145, age= 11-14 years, M=12.25 years). Using self-report and peer nomination measures, participants responded to measures on parental attachment, neighbourhood violence, school climate, dating history, self-perceived attractiveness, perceived popularity, relational bullying, and friendship. Friendship peer nomination data was utilized to compute Bonacich centrality and betweenness centrality to represent girls’ positions within their grade-level social networks. Peer nomination data was also utilized to construct network diagrams for both friendship and relational bullying at each grade-level for each school, resulting in 12 grade-level networks. Quadratic assignment procedures revealed that the girls in this sample were not more likely to relationally bully their friends than non-friends, though the network diagrams reveal instances of friends bullying friends. Examinations of the bullying network densities indicated that perpetration of intrasexual relational bullying was spread out amongst multiple perpetrators, as opposed to one particular “Mean Girl”. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that girls’ intrasexual relational bullying perpetration is positively associated with age (b=.17, p<.05), school climate (b=.14, p<.05) and perceived popularity (b=.52, p<.001), but that the social network characteristics of Bonacich centrality and betweenness centrality did not seem to be related to girls’ levels of perpetration. The research presented supports the need for continued research on the social network contexts that give rise to higher rates of girls’ intrasexual relational bullying perpetration. Theoretically, these findings suggest that the perception of popularity may be more important to the perpetration of girls’ relational bullying than popularity rooted in observable relationships such as friendships. These findings can also inform the design and implementation of bullying prevention and intervention programs both in-schools and also in gender-segregated environments such as girls’ sports’ teams and camp environments.

Authors

• Elizabeth Al-Jbouri, Brock University
  Presenting Author

• Anthony A Volk, Brock University
  Non-Presenting Author