ABSTRACT
Our aim in this chapter is to review the links between social cognition in aggressive children and the social networks in which they are embedded. Following some comments on the developmental perspective, we examine the solutions it provides to three nuclear questions on aggressive patterns, namely:
Are the perceptions of aggressive children and adolescents more distorted—or more accurate—than those of nonaggressive peers?
Do children behave aggressively because of their social affiliations; or, alternatively, are they aggressive because they have been alienated and rejected by the social system?
Extremely aggressive behaviors in childhood are associated with aggressive problems in adolescence and they are predictive of other serious problems in living (e.g., school dropout, suicidal behavior). Why do some highly aggressive children show configurations of both internalizing and externalizing problems in later development?
