Grace Skrzypiec, Earvin Alinsug, Ulil Amri Nasiruddin, Eleni Andreou, Antonella Brighi, Eleni Didaskalou, Annalisa Guarini, Tali Heiman, Soon-Won Kang, Soonjung Kwon, Dorit Olenik-Shemesh, Rosario Ortega-Ruiz, Eva M. Romera, Christina Roussi-Vergou, Damanjit Sandhu, Iwona Sikorska, Mirella Wyra, Juzhe Xi, Chih-Chien Yang
Research is sparse on who targets whom in peer aggression. In this study, we investigated the harm associated with the type of relationship between aggressed and aggressor with an international sample of over 5,000 students aged 11–16, living in 12 nations. Best friends and individuals with whom the respondent had no relationship were the least likely to engage in aggression, while one-third of peer aggression could be attributed to friends (not best friends), and classmates/peers. Greater harm was experienced between best friends only when it involved relational aggression, such as spreading rumors and being left out. Harm from aggression varied by world location and number of different experiences of aggression, while gender and age differences were inconsistent. Intervention programs could take advantage of the vital role that friends play as socializing agents during adolescence that focus on the harmfulness of aggression undertaken in the guise of a joke. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia; CEPSW, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia; International Office, Universitas Negeri Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia; Department of Primary/Special Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece; Faculty of Education, Free University of Bolzano, Bressanone, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Department of Education and Psychology, Open University of Israel, Raanana, Israel; Department of Psychology and Chil, Hanshin University, Osan, South Korea; School of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Psychology, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain; Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, India; Institute of Applied Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China; National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, Taiwan
