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Penn State Erie research on relational aggression leads to intervention By Loretta Brandon
	The middle-school bully used to be the biggest, meanest boy in class. Today, the middle-school bully may be the petite, blonde girl with braces. Psychological research and experience demonstrates that aggression among third- through eighth-grade students is no longer “just a guy thing.”   Instead of using physical force, girls are more likely to use words as their weapons. Name-calling, backstabbing, rumor and innuendo are all part of relational aggression, a form of aggression young girls use to target their victims’ need for social acceptance.   “There has been a substantial amount of research on physical aggression,” said Dr. Charisse L. Nixon, a developmental psychologist at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, “but we still need more information about relational aggression.” To that end, she and her co-author, Nicole Werner of the University of Idaho, have two studies in progress that examine normative beliefs and relational aggression.   Normative beliefs are an individual’s knowledge and understanding about the acceptability of behavior. They filter the way a person views the world and help determine appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Nixon hypothesized that changing children’s normative beliefs about aggression could reduce relational aggression, and her first step in proving this was to show that a link exists between children’s normative beliefs about aggression and their relational aggression behavior.   “In the first study, we determined that aggressors were more likely to consider relational aggression as socially acceptable behavior,” Nixon said. “We also learned that girls who are more accepting of relational aggression are less empathic, more depressed, more likely to perceive conflict, more likely to feel socially threatened and more likely to experience relational aggression.” With this tie established, Nixon moved on to a second study, which also included Werner and Mary Baird, executive director of The Ophelia Project.   Nixon’s goal in the second study was to create an intervention to reduce incidents of relational aggression. Using the knowledge gained from her first study, Nixon and Baird developed a curriculum designed to challenge girls’ ideas—their normative beliefs—about when and if relational aggression is acceptable. Using trained college students, she implemented the 10-week curriculum in a medium-sized middle school. She also implemented a two-day intervention to assess possible effects of a brief program. Finally, she used another middle school as a control group.   “The 10-week intervention group showed the most significant decrease in relational aggression,” Nixon said. “About 43 percent of the girls reported significant decreases in their acceptability of relational aggression behavior over a three-month period. In the same group, 29 percent of the girls significantly reduced their relational aggression behavior.”   Nixon is quick to point out the need for replication of her study, the need for a larger sample and the need to examine the longitudinal effects of relational aggression intervention programs. But, she adds, her research takes a first step in demonstrating that a change in normative beliefs may help reduce relationally aggressive behavior among girls.   Nixon is a board member of The Ophelia Project, a national organization dedicated to providing an emotionally, physically and socially safe environment for children (http://www.opheliaproject.org). This year, The Ophelia Project is piloting a new program titled Creating a Safe Social Climate in Our Schools (CASS). Using a whole-school approach and involving student mentors, The Ophelia Project will help school communities in Jamestown, N.Y.; Solon, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Selinsgrove, Pa., develop their own strategies to reduce peer aggression. The goal of the CASS program is to create a safe social climate in a school community by causing a change in the social behavioral norms. Nixon will collect and evaluate data in each of the four schools to determine the impact of the program.   “I am an applied developmental researcher with the emphasis on ‘applied,’” Nixon said. “For my work to be meaningful, it needs to have an outreach focus. I want to educate people about the ways we can make life better for our children and for ourselves.”   In the future, she sees potential for study of relational aggression and family relationships.   “Children learn relationally aggressive behavior, and they are most likely to learn it at home,” Nixon said. “If we look at unresolved conflict in the home, we may be able to develop interventions that help parents as well as children.”