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Anna Spece
Psychology/Sociology

Thomas Dishion, Mentor

Relational Aggression in Relation to Friendship Quality in Female Dyads

Understanding relational aggression within adolescent relationships can provide much information about the reasons why teens engage in antisocial or prosocial behavior and may lead to better solutions for controlling deviant acts.  Likewise, knowledge of relational aggression within friendships can assist therapists, teachers, and parents in developing tools that can help teens stop relational aggression. This study seeks to understand how high levels of mutuality contribute to relational aggression in a friendship and to perceptions of the quality of that friendship.  Those same high levels of relational aggression and closeness, however, can lead either to prosocial or deviant behavior in adolescent friendships.  The study uses existing video-taped data collected from Project Alliance, a psychological organization from a University of Oregon affiliate, the Child and Family Center. The data consist of 175 female participants aged 16 to 17, in videotaped discussions, referred to as the Peer Interaction Task.