Relational manipulation in middle childhood: Mechanisms of relationship adaptation within friendships

Abstract

The present study was conducted to expand research on relational aggression and victimization into the domain of social competence in close relationships to better understand the processes of harm that underlie this type of aggression. Based upon a social relational model of relationship processes, three hypothesized mechanisms of relationship adaptation in friendships were tested: interpersonal skills, autonomy and relatedness. Several important limitations of past research were addressed. First, multiple levels of the peer system in middle-childhood were assessed (friendship and group levels), allowing examination of relational manipulation effects across two important contexts of peer systems. Second, using structural equation modeling, the influence of relational manipulation on the three mechanisms of relationship adaptation were examined as predictors of later peer adaptation. Few studies have investigated the association between interpersonal skills and autonomy and relatedness in close friendships in which relational manipulation is common and later negative adaptation outcomes. Third, this study examined changes in the three proposed mechanisms as possible predictors of change in individual, friendship, and group level outcomes over time. The final objective of this study was to compare middle childhood friendship dyads to identify patterns of relational processes that may be differentially associated with maladaptive outcomes. The participants were 4 ^th and 5^th grade elementary school students from a diverse urban population (N = 150 reciprocal friendship dyads). Measures of aggression, adjustment, and friendship qualities were gathered at 2 time points, once at the beginning of the school year and again at the end of the same year. Relational victimization in friendships at time 1 was found to uniquely predict time 2 friendship relational victimization. It was found that relational manipulation in the peer group and in friendships at time 1 was related to the three mechanisms; and further that these relationship processes were predictive of later peer adaptation in expected ways. Changes in relationship processes in friendships were found to predict changes in peer, friendship and individual level outcomes at time 2. Discrepant patterns of relationship processes were not predictive of later maladaptation as expected. The implications of the findings for future relational manipulation research are discussed.