Marsee Aggression & Delinquency Lab

While traditional (e.g., physical and relational) and cyber aggression and victimization often co-occur, individuals may differ in terms of their experiences with aggression and victimization as well as social-psychological adjustment. Our research investigated whether there are distinct groups of college students who experience different forms of aggression and victimization, and the extent to which these groups differ from one another in their maladaptive personality characteristics and psychopathology symptoms.

Previous measures of the functions and forms of aggression often neglected the measurement of relational aggression (i.e., harmful gossiping, social exclusion, manipulation of social relationships). In light of the need for accurate measurement, Dr. Marsee 

and colleagues developed a self-report measure called the Peer Conflict Scale (PCS), which integrates form and function into each item, resulting in four scales of aggression:  reactive physical, proactive physical, reactive relational, and proactive relational. The PCS is now a widely used instrument to assess the forms and functions of aggression, and hasbeen translated into several languages including Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, and Turkish (Vagos et al.,2014). Click here for more information on the PCS.