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Better Understanding and Intervening to Prevent Relational Aggression

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Handbook of School Mental Health

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

Abstract

There has been increased attention paid to the reduction of aggressive behaviors among youth since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, an incident which reportedly occurred in response to the perpetrators’ victimization by peers (Larkin, 2009). The shocking display of extreme physical violence at Columbine influenced American researchers to focus on daily incidents of peer bullying and the implications of being an ongoing victim of peer bullying or abuse (Safran, 2007). More recently, harassment and bullying through nonphysical means (e.g., cyberbullying, relational aggression) has received media attention given the rash of suicides by youth who were being victimized by these forms of aggression. Although the media focus on nonphysical forms of aggression has only recently sparked the interest of the general public and lawmakers, research on these forms of aggression, particularly relational forms of aggression, is not a new phenomenon.

This research was supported, in part, by an NIMH grant (R01MH075787) to the first author and was made possible, in part, by the School District of Philadelphia. Opinions contained in this report reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the School District of Philadelphia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA

    Stephen S. Leff, Tracy Evian Waasdorp, Christine Waanders & Brooke S. Paskewich

  2. The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA

    Stephen S. Leff

  3. The Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center, Philadelphia, USA

    Stephen S. Leff

Authors
  1. Stephen S. Leff
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  2. Tracy Evian Waasdorp
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  3. Christine Waanders
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  4. Brooke S. Paskewich
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Correspondence to Stephen S. Leff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

    Mark D. Weist

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Nancy A. Lever

  3. Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Catherine P. Bradshaw

  4. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA

    Julie Sarno Owens

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Leff, S.S., Waasdorp, T.E., Waanders, C., Paskewich, B.S. (2014). Better Understanding and Intervening to Prevent Relational Aggression. In: Weist, M., Lever, N., Bradshaw, C., Owens, J. (eds) Handbook of School Mental Health. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7624-5_13

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