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High levels of physical and indirect forms of aggression are associated with psychosocial maladjustment among both perpetrators and victims (Crick, Casas, & Mosher, 1997; Crick & Nelson, 2002; Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, & Lozano, 2002). Yet, the use of aggression is common during childhood. A better understanding of the developmental patterns that represent normative versus atypical levels of aggression, and a better understanding of the predictors of atypical development is necessary for identifying the children at risk of future maladjustment, and is essential for designing appropriate prevention and intervention programs.
Several longitudinal studies have examined the development of children's use of physical aggression (PA; Broidy et al., 2003; Côté, Vaillancourt, LeBlanc, Nagin, & Tremblay, 2006; Tremblay et al., 2004), whereas children's use of indirect aggression (IA) was studied mainly with cross-sectional studies (Björkqvist, Lagerspetz, & Kaukiainen, 1992; Björkqvist, Österman, & Kaukiainen, 1992; Björkqvist, Österman, Kaukiainen, & Lagerspetz, 1998; Tremblay et al., 1996; see also Underwood, 2003). The only published longitudinal study examining how both forms of aggression are used by the same children over the course of development (Vaillancourt, Brendgen, Boivin, & Tremblay, 2003) focused on the stability of indirect aggression in children aged 4 to 7 years, rather than on age-related changes.
Thus, most studies have typically examined the development of PA independently of the development of IA. Findings from these studies raise several important questions about the joint development of PA and IA. First, the normative developmental patterns for PA and IA appear to be opposite: decreasing for PA and increasing for IA (Björkqvist, Lagerspetz, et al., 1992; Björkqvist, Österman, et al., 1992; Cairns, Cairns, Neckerman, Ferguson, & Gariepy, 1989; Österman et al., 1998; Tremblay et al., 1996). We do not know, however, how these patterns are reflected at the intraindividual level. That is, the possibility that the children who are declining on one type of aggression are the same as those who are increasing in indirect aggression has not been examined. Second, some children appear to exhibit atypically high levels of PA, others atypical high levels of IA (Brame, Nagin, & Tremblay, 2001; Crick et al., 1997; Nagin & Tremblay, 1999; Rys & Bear, 1997), but we do not know whether these children use a single type of aggression or whether they...