The Pathways from Forms of Aggression and Peer Victimization to Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: A Gender-Informed Analysis

Despite ample evidence supporting the association between relational and overt aggression and social-psychological adjustment problems, little is known about how this association occurs among adolescents in non-Western cultures. The present study examined whether potentially traumatic peer experience, such as forms of peer victimization (relational and overt), influences the longitudinal association between forms of aggression (relational and overt) and social-psychological adjustment problems (internalizing and externalizing) among Japanese adolescents. Gender differences in the mediation of peer victimization were also examined. Two hundred and eighty-one Japanese students from nine classrooms and two public middle schools participated in this study (Time 1 M age = 12.72, SD = .45, 50% female). Data included three time points one year apart (Grades 7, 8, and 9). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that higher relational aggression in Grade 7 was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problems in Grade 9. Notably, relational aggression was associated with internalizing problems, but not with externalizing problems, through relational victimization for both boys and girls. Overt aggression in Grade 7 was significantly associated with externalizing problems in Grade 9, but overt victimization did not mediate this association. On the other hand, overt aggression did not predict internalizing problems in Grade 9, but the indirect effect of overt victimization was found in this association. The findings inform us of the need to intervene with at-risk youth, regardless of gender, who use relational aggression, experience potentially traumatic relational victimization, and subsequently exhibit high levels of mental health and behavioral problems in Japan.