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Children's Evaluations of Retaliatory Aggression Against Siblings and Friends

NCJ Number
141160
Journal
Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1993) Pages: 77-93
Author(s)
S D Herzberger; J A Hall
Date Published
1993
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Using vignettes, this study examined children's judgments about aggressive retaliation against siblings and friends.
Abstract
Parents of 8- through 10-year-old children in a soccer league in a suburb of Hartford received a letter that invited their children to participate in a study of children's reactions to conflict. Eight parents were contacted, and 50 participants (29 boys, 21 girls) were interviewed. The vignettes examined the role of relationship as it interacts with the type of retaliation depicted in the story, the age relationship of the story characters, and the intention of the initial aggression, as well as the respondent characteristics of gender and aggressiveness. Physical and verbal retaliation generally were considered most wrong when directed at a younger sibling; when the retaliation involved property damage, such aggression was considered least wrong. Children, as hypothesized, rated retaliation against an accidental aggressor as more wrong than against an intentional aggressor, regardless of relationship. There were also no overall gender differences in judgments of retaliation against siblings and peers; however, aggressive girls rated retaliation against siblings less severely than less aggressive girls. Judgments of retaliation among boys were unrelated to level of aggression. The findings are discussed in relation to previous literature on sibling conflict and family violence. 1 figure, 1 table, and 40 references