Gossip on the Playground: Changes Associated With Universal Intervention, Retaliation Beliefs, and Supportive Friends

Relational forms of aggression are known to increase during the middle school years. To date, the majority of efficacy studies of elementary school-based programs have focused on the reduction of physical and direct verbal aggression, to the exclusion of effects on relational aggression. Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program is one exception, which explicitly addresses relational forms of aggression such as malicious gossip and social exclusion. The current study assessed the short-term efficacy of Steps to Respect on reducing observed malicious gossip on the playground. Beliefs about aggressive norms and friends’ social support were examined as moderators of program impact. Participants were 544 students from six schools in the Pacific Northwest. Mixed hierarchical modeling was used to test hypotheses. Results provide support for the effects of universal prevention programs on reducing relational aggression, and highlight the need to consider how aggression norms and supportive friends may impact victim responses and continued victimization. Historically, little attention has been paid to sex differences in aggression, but we now recognize that girls are more likely to display aggression in a socially manipulative manner (e.g., rumors, gossip, and social exclusion) compared to physical or verbal forms of aggression. The intent to harm or manipulate someone’s social relationships or social status has been referred to as relational aggression (e.g., Crick & Grotpeter, 1995), and other times as indirect (Björkqvist, Lagerspetz, & Kaukiainen, 1992) or social aggression (Underwood, 2003). Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably (Archer & Coyne, 2005), Xie, Swift, B. Cairns, and R. Cairns (2002) point out that some aspects of social The authors thank Debra Pepler and Wendy Craig for sharing their wisdom and videotapes of children’s