Peer Nomination of Aggression Scale

Abstract

The Peer-Nomination of Aggression Scale (PNAS) is a robust psychometric instrument designed for the comprehensive assessment of aggressive behaviors and complex social dynamics among school-aged children. Unlike self-report or teacher rating systems, the PNAS utilizes a foundational peer-nomination methodology. This approach requires students to identify classmates who exhibit specific behaviors detailed in the scale items, thereby providing an objective measure of social reputation and overt conduct within the natural classroom environment.

The PNAS is structured around six critical subscales: Aggression, Popularity, Rejection, Victimization, Hyperactivity, and Prosocial Behavior. Widely employed in developmental research, the PNAS is highly valuable for identifying youth at elevated risk for aggressive and antisocial tendencies and for longitudinally tracking behavioral changes over time.

Keywords

Peer-Nomination, Aggression, Social Behavior, Victimization, Bullying, Hyperactivity, Prosocial Behavior, Childhood Development, Psychometrics, Antisocial Behavior.

Authors

L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard D. Eron, Monroe M. Lefkowitz, L. O. Walder.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Peer-Nomination of Aggression Scale (PNAS) is to accurately quantify both the frequency and intensity of aggressive, maladaptive, and related positive social behaviors demonstrated by a child, based exclusively on the collective observations of their peers. This sociometric methodology is crucial as it offers a unique, ecological perspective on behavior that is often inaccessible or biased when relying solely on teacher or parental reports.

The PNAS functions as a critical research tool for longitudinal studies investigating the development, stability, and long-term consequences of aggressive behavior in youth. While it is utilized across diverse settings, including schools and clinical research environments, researchers emphasize that the PNAS is strictly a measurement instrument, not a diagnostic tool. Consequently, it should not be used in isolation for making clinical treatment decisions.

Construct

The PNAS is a multidimensional instrument designed to measure a broad construct of social functioning and maladjustment, with its core focus centered on overt and relational aggressive behavior. The scale comprises 24 items which are systematically organized into six distinct and empirically supported subscales, capturing different facets of peer interaction and behavioral reputation.

The six subscales are defined as follows:

• Aggression: This primary subscale measures overt aggressive behaviors, encompassing physical acts (pushing, shoving), verbal hostility (saying mean things), non-compliance, and relational aggression (lying to get others in trouble). This subscale is calculated using 10 specific items (5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23).
• Prosocial Behavior: Measures positive social conduct, reflecting a child’s willingness to share and help peers (Items 4, 7, 14, and 24).
• Popularity: Reflects the degree of social preference and acceptance a child holds within the peer group (Items 3 and 15).
• Rejection: Quantifies the extent to which a child is actively disliked or systematically excluded from group activities by peers (Items 8 and 16).
• Victimization: Assesses the frequency with which a child is targeted, harassed, or bullied by other children (Items 9 and 18).
• Hyperactivity: Measures disruptive physical behaviors associated with restlessness, such as constantly getting out of their seat or excessive wiggling (Items 10 and 17).

Validity

The PNAS is widely recognized in the field of psychological assessment as a valid measure of aggressive behavior in children. The utilization of a peer-nomination methodology inherently strengthens the validity profile by compiling observations from multiple informants in a naturalistic context, thereby mitigating the risk of single-rater bias common in other measurement types.

Significant empirical evidence supports the scale’s predictive validity, demonstrating its capability to forecast future aggressive and antisocial behavior. Furthermore, the instrument effectively differentiates between individuals exhibiting high versus low levels of aggression. By including items that capture the individual’s social reputation, the PNAS achieves high ecological validity in its assessment of real-world social interactions and conflict dynamics.

Reliability

Extensive psychometric studies have established the PNAS as a reliable tool for measuring aggression and related social constructs. The fundamental structure of peer nomination contributes to high internal consistency because nominations are aggregated across the entire peer group. This process of aggregation yields a highly stable and consistent measure of a child’s social status and behavioral reputation within the classroom setting.

Moreover, the PNAS has demonstrated remarkable sensitivity to longitudinal changes in behavior, reliably capturing shifts in aggressive patterns over extended periods. This characteristic makes the scale exceptionally suitable for long-term research within developmental psychology and preventative intervention studies.

Factor Analysis

The theoretical construction of the PNAS is supported by underlying latent factors related to both externalizing and internalizing behaviors, primarily focusing on aggression and social status. Factor analyses, such as those published by Huesmann et al. (1994), have confirmed the scale’s robust, multi-factorial structure, validating the organization into six distinct subscales: Aggression, Prosocial Behavior, Popularity, Rejection, Victimization, and Hyperactivity.

This confirmed structure is critical as it permits researchers to conduct nuanced analyses, exploring not just overall aggression scores but also the specific, correlated dimensions of social adaptation, peer conflict, and social acceptance/rejection.

Instrument

Test Type: Peer-Nomination Sociometric Measure/Questionnaire

Format: The PNAS is administered as a structured questionnaire within the classroom setting. Students receive a list of their classmates’ names, typically separated by gender. The administrator reads each item aloud, and students are instructed to mark the names of all peers who fit the description. Acceptable responses include “No Boy” and “No Girl” if no one fits the description. The resulting ratings can be used independently or compared with teacher ratings for triangulation.

Language Available: English (Primary research language).

Population Group: School-aged children.

Age Group: Children grades 1-6.

Population Details: The scale is specifically designed to assess aggressive and antisocial behavior, alongside positive social traits (prosocial behavior), in elementary school settings where stable peer groups facilitate accurate nominations.

Test Methodology: Scoring is calculated as a proportion ranging from 0 to 1. Each subscale score represents the total proportion of times a child was nominated for behaviors within that specific domain, divided by the total number of nominators (peers who completed the assessment). For example, a score of 1 indicates the child was nominated by every nominator for every aggressive behavior item, while a score of 0 indicates no nominations for that domain.

Keywords

Peer assessment, Sociometrics, Child violence, Aggression scale, Developmental psychology, School behavior, Antisocial behavior, Relational aggression, Psychometrics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: L. Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D., Research Center for Group Dynamics, 5030 Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA. Tel: (734) 764-8385, Fax: (734) 763-1202.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Peer-Nomination of Aggression Scale is copyrighted intellectual property. Users seeking permission to use the scale must contact the correspondence author, L. Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D., directly. The foundational development and publication of this instrument date back to the early 1970s, evidenced by the 1971 publication by Orpinas, Eron, Walder, and Lefkowitz.

The instrument itself can be reviewed on pages 173-174 of Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/YV_Compendium.pdf. Further informational resources are available in this document: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED486261.pdf.

Reference’s

• Orpinas, Eron LD, Walder LO, Lefkowitz MM. Learning of aggression in children. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1971.
• Huesmann LR, Eron LD, Lefkowitz MM, Walder LO. Stability of aggression over time and generations. Developmental Psychology 1984;20(6): 1120-1134.
• Huesmann LR, Eron LD, Guerra NG. Victimization and aggression. Philadelphia, PA: Society for Life History Research, 1992.
• Huesmann LR, Eron LD, Guerra NG, Crawshaw VB. Measuring children’s aggression with teachers’ predictions of peer-nominations. Psychological Assessment 1994;6(4):329-336.

Items of the Peer Nomination of Aggression Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

• Victimization
• 1. Who are you?
• 2. Who are the children who always sit around you?
• 3. Who would you like to sit next to in class?
• 4. Who likes to share with others?
• 5. Who does not obey the teacher?
• 6. Who often says “Give me that!”?
• 7. Who gets along well with others?
• 8. Who are the children who are usually chosen last to join in group activities?
• 9. Who gets picked on by other kids?
• 10. Who gets out of their seat a lot?
• 11. Who gives dirty looks or sticks out their tongue at other children?
• 12. Who makes up stories and lies to get other children in trouble?
• 13. Who does things that bother other children?
• 14. Who helps other kids?
• 15. Who are the children you would like to have for your best friends?
• 16. Who are the children that you really don’t like?
• 17. Who wiggles or moves around in their seat a lot?
• 18. Who gets hit and pushed by other kids?
• 19. Who starts a fight over nothing?
• 20. Who pushes or shoves other children?
• 21. Who is always getting into trouble?
• 22. Who says mean things?
• 23. Who takes other children’s things without asking?
• 24. Who does nice things to help other people?