CHILDRENS ABILITIES TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN PLAYFUL AND AGGRESSIVE FIGHTING - A DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Children's abilities to distinguish between playful and aggressive fighting, and the cues they use to do so, were examined as a function of age (8 versus 11 years), sex and observed participation in play fighting (high versus low) and aggressive fighting. Most 8- and 11-year-olds, but significantly more of the latter, agreed with the standard view of 19 episodes recorded on videotape, and boys and girls did so to the same extent. This ability was independent of observed participation in play fighting and aggressive fighting, in three out of four classes; in the fourth class, those children that were observed to engage in most bouts of play fighting and most episodes of aggression tended to make the most errors on this test. In three out of four classes, the correlations between participation in playful and aggressive fighting were non-significant. The most frequently reported criteria to help separate playful and aggressive fighting were related to the physical actions of the participants, inferences about actions/intentions and whether the participants stayed together or separated. Significant age differences in the use of some criteria were obtained. Developmental changes in these two aspects of social skills were discussed, as were some developmental implications of poor social skills.