Comparing teacher and peer perceptions of aggression: An ecological approach.

Teacher and peer perceptions of aggression were investigated in a sample of 899 students. Teachers rated their students in Grades 3 through 8 on an 8-item scale assessing peer-directed aggression. Students completed a questionnaire within classrooms that measured acceptance, rejection, and peer-directed aggression. Both teachers and peers reported higher levels of aggression in boys than in girls. Teacher and peer perceptions of aggressive behavior were more congruent for boys than for girls, but this congruence differed significantly as a function of ethnicity. Significant differences among individual classrooms also existed in both teaacher and peer ratings, as well as in the relationships between the 2 measures