ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses one important dimension of the problem of school violence: bullies and victims. In this multi-method, multi-informant, longitudinal study children followed youngsters from the last year of primary school across the first two years of middle school. The social exchange theory was more formally tested in this study by examining the degree to which bullying mediated dominance from primary to middle school. It discusses the problem of cross-sex aggression, but especially male to female aggression. In this work one can observe youngster's integration and use of aggression at monthly school dances held across the first full year of middle school. The chapter also discusses the dimensions of peer relations that may mitigate aggression in adolescence. The contents of the chapter, and the research on which it was based, have significant implications for policy makers, administrators, and teachers concerned with reducing the prevalence of bullying in schools.