Toward an Integrated Gender-Linked Model of Aggression Subtypes in Early and Middle Childhood

An integrative model is proposed for understanding the development of physical and relational aggression in early and middle childhood. The central goal was to posit a new theoretical framework that expands on existing social-cognitive and gender schema models (i.e., Social Information-Processing Model of Children's Adjustment [N. R. Crick & K. A. Dodge, 1994] and the Schematic-Processing Model of Sex Role Stereotyping [C. L. Martin & C. F. Halverson, 1981]). The proposed model suggests several individual- and group-level effects and the available evidence for each of these hypotheses is discussed. The ways in which the proposed model may guide future research in the field are presented.