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Relational Aggression
Helping the Young Victims of Emotional Bullying
By Jenn Director Knudsen
Relational Aggression
Bullying has many faces. It can be physical or verbal. The kind Allie suffered and that is fleshed out in Ludwig's book is called relational aggression, a phrase coined only nine years ago. This perhaps more subversive form of bullying is defined as the use of relationships to directly or indirectly manipulate and hurt others, Ludwig says. She adds it has two main components: an imbalance of power and the intent to harm.
Though a relational aggression episode can occur over and over, it also can be a one-time event, according to Jennifer Ruh Linder, professor of psychology at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore.
"[Relational aggression] is putting conditions on a friendship, and it starts early," says Ludwig. "You've heard of conditional love; this is conditional friendship."
In the course of researching her book, which went from idea to published work in 18 months, Ludwig dug up some disturbing statistics:
- Children are the targets of bullying about once every three to six minutes from the start of kindergarten to the end of first grade, accordig to a November 2003 report released by the Center for the Advancement of Health and supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.
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