Measuring relational aggression in children and adolescents: A systematic review of the available instruments

Abstract

Abstract Research on relational aggression, defined as behaviors that are used to harm others relationships, has shown that it is detrimental to children s and adolescents emotional and social functioning. The main goal of this study is to review the extant relational aggression instruments and provide recommendations for future studies. Emphasis was placed on the measures conceptual basis as well as on their psychometric properties, referring to reliability (i.e., internal consistency) and validity (i.e., construct and convergent). A systematic literature search between 2005 and May 2018 yielded 89 published studies which were coded on assessed behaviors and participants as well as on measurement characteristics, such as number of items, information source, scales reliability and validity. The review includes a variety of different measures that relied on distinct reporters to capture relationally aggressive behaviors. Regarding the conceptual clarification of the construct reflected in the corresponding measures, an inconsistency across studies was detected. Evidence of convergent validity is provided for the majority of the instruments, while very few of the studies investigated the measures construct validity. Findings demonstrate great variability in measures used to assess relationally aggressive behavior and highlight the need for robust and psychometrically-sound instruments.