Aggressive Forms and Functions on School Playgrounds: Profile Variations in Interaction Styles, Bystander Actions, and Victimization

Coders used real-time focal-child sampling methods to observe the playground behavior and victimization experiences of 600 third to sixth grade youth. Person-centered analyses yielded three profiles that specified aggressive function (reactive, proactive) and form (direct, indirect), and conformed to social-information-processing functional classifications of proactive, reactive, and pervasive aggressors. Consistent with social information processing models, direct reactors and pervasive aggressors evidenced poor self-regulation (argumentative, seldom agreeable), and pervasives were drawn to dominance-linked activity. The form and function of experienced victimization generally corresponded to the form and function of aggression typical of each profile. Indirect proactors were agreeable but heavily involved as perpetrators, facilitators, and victims of indirect aggression. Developmental differences in victimization, rough play, agreeable behavior, and bystander reinforcement of aggression suggest greater fluidity in social roles prior to adolescence. Possible links from rough play and bystander behavior to victimization are considered. Issues regarding the theoretical status of well-regulated retaliation are discussed.