A Longitudinal Study on the Developmental Trend of Aggression in Childhood

Data on children's overt aggression and relational aggression of 285 students from Grade 3 and Grade 4 were collected in June of 2002,2003 and 2004.The Revised Class Play was employed to get overt aggression and relational aggression scores.Results indicated that(1) the changing trends of overt aggression and relational aggression were not significant from middle to late childhood;there was a significant positive correlation between overt aggression and relational aggression.And the more rapidly children's overt aggression changed,the faster their relational aggression did.(2) at T1,boys showed more overt aggression than girls,but the gender difference on the level of relational aggression was not significant.And the relational aggression of Grade 4 ascended at a faster speed during the three years than Grade 3.The group of higher relational aggression at T1,ascended at a faster speed during the three years than the group of lower relational aggression at T1.