Relational aggression, or “mean girl” bullying, is a popular subject in news and entertainment media. This nonphysical form of aggression generally used among adolescent girls includes gossiping, rumor spreading, exclusion and rejection. As media coverage has illustrated, relational aggression can lead to tragic and sometimes fatal outcomes. Despite these alarming concerns, little has been done to prevent and eliminate these negative behaviors. Now, University of Missouri researchers have developed and tested a new intervention that effectively decreases relational aggression among teen girls.
“Good outcomes can happen when priorities are set by schools and families to prevent and eliminate relational aggression,” said co-author Dr. Connie Brooks, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Psychology in the School of Health Professions and in the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. “This study was an attempt to address this social problem in a meaningful way by testing an intervention to reduce relational aggression among teen girls.”
Bullying, particularly among school-age children, is a major public health problem both domestically and internationally. Current estimates suggest that nearly one-third of American adolescents reported at least moderate, repeated bullying experiences as the bully, the victim, or both. Bullying experiences include not only physical aggression, but also verbal aggression, including verbal harassment, spreading rumors, or social rejection and isolation. Moreover, research suggests that boys are more likely to engage in physical aggression, while females tend to use more covert forms of aggression, often called relational aggression.
Subtle behaviors, profound effects
The term ‘relational aggression’ was coined in the early nineties by Dr. Nicki Cricck, who defines it as “emotional violence and bullying behaviors focused on damaging an individual’s social connections within the peer group.” Relational aggression includes any acts that intentionally exclude a person from making or maintaining friendships or being integrated into the peer group. Behaviors intended to damage or manipulate relationships with others are common forms of relational aggression. Unlike other types of bullying, relational aggression is not as overt as physical aggression and therefore often goes unnoticed; however, the effects can be long lasting.
Relational aggression has been observed as early preschool age and can continue into adult workplaces. In the past, many of these behaviors were dismissed and seen as “rites of passage” or even normal behavior. However, the harmful effects are being recognized as anything but normal. In fact, the National Education Association reports that as many as 160,000 kids miss school every day out of fear of being victimized by such behaviors.
Research also shows that students who have been the targets of relational aggression tend to perform worse in school as a result, and often have serious, long-term adjustment problems. They are also more likely to suffer from mental health conditions including anger, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Similarly, those who are the aggressors in these incidents have been shown to become increasingly more depressed, rejected, withdrawn and delinquent throughout adolescence.
Despite the dire consequences of relational aggression among youth in the U.S., very few evidence-based interventions exist to combat the problem. According to the authors behind the new study, there is a “pressing need for empirical examination of ecologically valid, secondary intervention practices in this area.” Hoping to address that need, the UM team set out to develop and systematically evaluate a new program aimed at reducing relationally aggressive behaviors among adolescent girls.
Building an evidence base
The intervention, Growing Interpersonal Relationships through Learning and Systemic Supports (GIRLSS), is a 10-week group counseling, caregiver training and caregiver phone consultation intervention for relationally aggressive middle school girls and their families. Thirty female youth in grades 6–8 and their parents were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (N = 22) or a wait list control group (N = 12).
The students, ranging in age from 12 to 15, participated in one 70-minute session per week that included interactive discussions, media-based examples, role-playing, journaling and weekly goal setting. Caregivers of students participated in separate workshops and biweekly phone consultations during which they learned new communication, monitoring and supervision strategies in addition to appropriate disciplinary responses.
At the end of the intervention, school counselors and teachers reported a decrease in relationally aggressive behaviors among the girls. “Intervention participants demonstrated significantly more change in the desired direction than control participants according to school counselors and an averaged score of school counselor and teacher-reported relational aggression,” the researchers reported.
According to Dr. Brooks, relational aggression is a complicated issue with many variables, including schools, families and individuals. “It takes a village to raise relationally healthy children,” said Dr. Melissa Maras, co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology in the MU College of Education. “This study represents a first step in helping school personnel meet the intervention needs of a diverse group of relationally aggressive girls.” The researchers also say parents and teachers should be aware of relational aggression so they don’t unknowingly contribute to the negative behaviors.
In order for the intervention to expand to more schools, MU researchers hope to improve and further evaluate GRILSS based on feedback from the participants. The new study, “GIRLSS: A Randomized, Plot Study of a Multisystemic, School-Based Intervention to Reduce Relational Aggression,” was published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies.