Relational aggression, physical aggression and deception during early childhood: a multimethod, multi-informant short-term longitudinal study.

A short-term longitudinal study examined relational and physical aggression and deceptive behavior among 120 preschool-aged children (M = 44.36 months old, SD = 11.07). Multiple informants and methods (i.e., observational, teacher reports) were used. Evidence for discriminant validity of the observations of aggression subtypes was found. For example, observations of relational aggression were more highly associated with teacher reports of relational aggression than teacher reports of physical aggression. Observed relational aggression was significantly associated with concurrent and prospective increases in deceptive behavior, even after controlling for gender and observed physical aggression. In addition, observed relational aggression was a unique significant predictor of concurrent deception, above and beyond teacher reports of aggression subtypes, which provides important support for the utility of the observational methods.