Anger, Sympathy, and Children’s Reactive and Proactive Aggression: Testing a Differential Correlate Hypothesis

Multidimensional profiles of Head Start children's social behaviors predict their interpretations of physical aggression

Preschool children's reasoning regarding moral events differs according to adversity and relates to aggression. Understanding morality in young children is paramount for understanding their aggressive behaviors. The study aims to identify patterns of aggression and prosocial behavior using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and investigate how patterns of aggression and prosocial behavior relate to reasoning about prototypic moral events. One hundred six children (Mage  = 4.40 years old, SD = 0.55 years old, Range: 3.08-5.33 years old, 51% boys) enrolled in Head Start programs and their caregivers participated. In the fall caregivers completed surveys on forms (i.e., the manifestation of behavior) and functions of aggression (i.e., motivation of behavior), and prosocial behavior. The following spring children completed two moral reasoning tasks that measured children's judgment and reasoning of harm, and their attributions of transgressors' reasoning. The LCA revealed a 3-class solution: (1) high levels of relational aggression and moderate levels of prosocial behavior (bistrategic controllers), (2) low levels of both aggression and average prosocial behavior (uninvolved), (3) high levels of all types of aggression and low levels of prosocial behavior (high aggression). Subsequent analyses suggest that uninvolved children prioritize adhering to authority over other concerns, and bistrategic controllers focused on goal-oriented reasoning. Overall, our findings support that recognizing patterns of behavior may be useful in understanding children's moral reasoning.

Normative Beliefs and Aggression: The Mediating Roles of Empathy and Anger

This study examined a two-mediator model with both empathy and anger as mediators in the association between children's normative beliefs about aggression and forms (relational and physical) and functions (reactive and proactive) of aggressive behavior. Ninety-eight children (54% males, M_age=46.21months, SD = 8.84months) reported their approval of relationally and physically aggressive behaviors depicted in iconic (animation) and enactive (toy figurines) hypothetical scenarios. Children's aggression, empathy and anger were measured using teacher reports. No main effects of normative beliefs about aggression on the corresponding aggressive behavior were found. Normative beliefs about aggression were negatively associated with empathy and empathy was significantly associated with relational aggression, suggesting that developing social emotional processes mediate the relation between social cognitions and aggression. Anger was associated with aggression, but not normative beliefs about aggression. The findings provide support for the distinction between subtypes of aggressive behavior in young children and the developing social-cognitive and affective processes that influence these behaviors.

Assessment of hostile intent attributions across escalating conflict stories

Previous research suggests the importance of intent attributions in the development and maintenance of aggressive behavior. The primary purpose of the current study was to develop a measure assessing increases in attributions of hostility in response to escalating social conflict scenarios that were relational and instrumental in nature and to determine whether hostility trajectories were associated with relevant social experiences and behavior. A sample of primarily emerging adults (n = 750; M age = 19.97, SD = 3.60; 49.4% women, 48.3% men, 2.3% nonbinary or transgender; 69.9% Caucasian) responded to surveys regarding social behavior, peer victimization, and reports of hostile attribution biases in addition to the developed measure. Findings indicated that individuals adjusted their intent attributions across the conflict escalation stories, as reflected in linear increases in hostility ratings. Hostile attribution trajectories were also related to hostile attribution biases, peer victimization, and social behavior, including physical and relational aggression and prosocial behavior.

The development of forms and functions of aggression during early childhood: A temperament-based approach

This study used a short-term longitudinal design with theoretically derived preregistered hypotheses and analyses to examine the role of temperament in the development of forms (i.e., physical and relational) and functions (i.e., proactive and reactive) of aggressive behavior in early childhood (N = 300, M age = 44.70 months, SD = 4.38, 44% girls). Temperament was measured via behavioral reports of emotional dysregulation, fearlessness/daring, and rule internalization/empathy and, in a subsample that completed a physiological assessment, via skin conductance and respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Emotion dysregulation generally served as a risk factor for all subtypes of aggression, with evidence of stronger associations with reactive as compared to proactive functions of relational aggression for girls. Daring predicted increases in physical aggression, especially among boys, and rule internalization predicted decreases in relational aggression, especially among girls. Rule internalization mediated longitudinal associations between daring and proactive relational aggression for girls. Some evidence also emerged supporting associations between adaptive functioning (i.e., high empathy, high respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and proactive functions of aggression. Findings highlight distinct temperamental risk factors for physical versus relational aggression and provide partial support for gender-linked theories of the development of aggression.

Children's emotion recognition and aggression: A multi-cohort longitudinal study

Difficulty recognizing negative emotions (NEs) in children is linked to increased antisocial traits and externalizing problems. However, crucial aspects of this relation remain unclear, such as: whether NE recognition is associated with externalizing problems in general or only a particular subcomponent (i.e., aggression); whether subcomponents of NE recognition (i.e., insensitivity and misspecifications) are relatively more important; and how these relations change over the course of development. We assessed emotion recognition, overt aggression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms in an ethnically diverse sample of Canadian children (N = 150; 4-year-olds, N = 148; 8-year-olds) and followed up with them 1 year later (86.9% retention). Emotion recognition was assessed using a behavioral task and caregivers reported on children's externalizing symptoms. Children with lower NE recognition had higher initial, but not subsequent, overt aggression, even when controlling for nonaggressive externalizing symptoms (i.e., ADHD and ODD symptoms). NE recognition was not concurrently or longitudinally associated with nonaggressive externalizing symptoms. Age and gender did not moderate these findings. Both higher NE insensitivity (e.g., reporting a sad face appears neutral) and misspecifications (e.g., reporting a sad face appears angry) were significantly associated with higher concurrent overt aggression. In conclusion, both NE insensitivity and misspecifications were found to be uniquely important for children's overt aggression. These findings highlight the importance of different forms of NE recognition and differentiating between aggressive and nonaggressive externalizing problems in children.

The Development of Respect in Children and Adolescents

Respect is an integral part of everyday life. It is a virtue central to the aim of living an ethically good life. Despite its importance, little is known about its emergence, development, correlates, and consequences. In this monograph, we aim to fill this gap by presenting empirical work on children's and adolescents' thinking and feelings about respect. Specifically, we examined the development of respect in ethnically diverse samples of children between the ages of 5 and 15 years (N = 476). Using a narrative and semi-structured interview, as well as self-, caregiver- and teacher-reports, and peer-nominations, we collected information on children's respect conceptions and reasoning, as well as on the social-emotional correlates and prosocial and aggressive behavioral outcomes of respect. We begin with a review of theoretical accounts on respect. This includes a selective overview of the history of respect in philosophy and psychology in Chapter I. Here, we discuss early writings and conceptualizations of respect across the seminal works of Kant and others. We then provide an account of the various ways in which respect is conceptualized across the psychological literature. In Chapter II, we review extant developmental theory and research on respect and its development, correlates, and behavioral consequences. In this chapter, as part of our developmental framework, we discuss how respect is related and distinct from other emotions such as sympathy and admiration. Next, we describe our methodology (Chapter III). This includes a summary of our research aims, samples, and measures used for exploring this novel area of research. Our primary goals were to examine how children and adolescents conceptualize respect, how their conceptualizations differ by age, whether and to what degree children feel respect toward others' "good" behavior (i.e., respect evaluations for behavior rooted in ethical norms of kindness, fairness, and personal achievement goals), and how children's respect is related to other ethical emotions and behaviors. The next three chapters provide a summary of our empirical findings. Chapter IV showcases our prominent results on the development of children's conceptions of respect. Results revealed that children, across age, considered prosociality to be the most important component involved in conceptualizations of respect. We also found age-related increases in children's beliefs about fairness as a core component of respect. Children and adolescents also reported feeling higher levels of respect for behavior in the ethical domain (e.g., sharing fairly and inclusion) than behavior in the personal domain (i.e., achieving high grades in school). Chapter V investigates how sympathy and feelings of sadness over wrongdoing relate to respect conceptions and respect for behavior. Our findings show that sadness over wrongdoing was positively associated with adolescents' fairness conceptions of respect. Sympathy was positively related to children's feelings of respect toward others' ethical behavior. In Chapter VI, we present links between respect and social behavior. Our findings provide some evidence that children's feelings of respect are positively linked with prosocial behavior and children's conceptions of respect (particularly those reflecting themes of fairness and equality) are negatively related to physical aggression. In the last two chapters, we discuss the empirical findings and their implications for practice and policy. In Chapter VII, we draw upon recent work in the field of social-emotional development to interpret our results and provide insight into how our findings extend previous seminal work on the development of respect from early childhood to adolescence. Finally, in Chapter VIII, we conclude by discussing implications for educational and clinical practice with children and adolescents, as well as social policies aimed at reducing discrimination and nurturing children's well-being and positive peer relationships.

Perceived Discrimination and Aggression Among Chinese Migrant Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model

Previous research has showed that Chinese rural-to-urban migrant adolescents are at high risk for discrimination, negative emotions, and aggression. However, little is known about how discrimination, negative emotions, and aggression are interrelated and whether social support addressing the emotional needs of the adolescents would moderate the relationship of discrimination to aggression. This study attempts to fill these gaps. Based on prior research, it is proposed that perceived discrimination relates to reactive aggression by increasing negative emotions that foster aggressive responses to stressful events. Considering the central role that negative emotions may play, it is also hypothesized that socioemotional support provided by family, friends, and community mitigates the impact of perceived discrimination on reactive aggression by reducing negative emotions. The results obtained from the analysis of two-wave survey data collected from a probability sample of 470 migrant students aged 11-17 (46.17% female; mean age = 13.49) in China supported these hypotheses. The findings indicate that perceived discrimination fosters negative emotions, which in turn increase reactive aggression. Additionally, socioemotional support reduces the adverse impact of perceived discrimination on reactive aggression by weakening the link between perceived discrimination and negative emotions. Practical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Relating Reactive and Proactive Aggression to Trait Driving Anger in Young and Adult Males: A Pilot Study Using Explicit and Implicit Measures

Driving anger and aggressive driving are main contributors to crashes, especially among young males. Trait driving anger is context-specific and unique from other forms of anger. It is necessary to understand the mechanisms of trait driving anger to develop targeted interventions. Although literature conceptually distinguished reactive and proactive aggression, this distinction is uncommon in driving research. Similar, cognitive biases related to driving anger, measured by a combination of explicit and implicit measures, received little attention. This pilot study related explicit and implicit measures associated with reactive and proactive aggression to trait driving anger, while considering age. The sample consisted of 42 male drivers. The implicit measures included a self-aggression association (i.e., Single-Target Implicit Association Test) and an attentional aggression bias (i.e., Emotional Stroop Task). Reactive aggression related positively with trait driving anger. Moreover, a self-aggression association negatively related to trait driving anger. Finally, an interaction effect for age suggested that only in young male drivers, higher proactive aggression related to lower trait driving anger. These preliminary results motivate further attention to the combination of explicit and implicit measures related to reactive and proactive aggression in trait driving anger research.

Relations between Reactive and Proactive Aggression and Daily Emotions in Adolescents

The current study examined whether individual differences in reactive and proactive aggression: 1) relate to level of daily emotion, including happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, 2) predict across-day variability in these emotions, and 3) moderate reactivity of these emotions to positive and negative events. Participants were a racially/ethnically diverse sample of 144 adolescents (80 girls, 64 boys; M age = 13.55 years; SD = 1.34). Adolescents self-reported on reactive and proactive aggression in a home visit prior to the collection of daily data. Using daily dairy procedures, adolescents then reported on their daily emotions and positive/negative events over 12 consecutive days. Higher reactive aggression was associated with greater levels of daily anger, more variability in anger across days, and heightened angry reactivity to negative events. Additionally, higher reactive aggression predicted lower levels of daily happiness but greater happy reactivity to positive events. Finally, higher reactive aggression was linked to increased variability in daily fear. In contrast, proactive aggression was largely unrelated to adolescents' daily emotions, with the exception that higher proactive aggression predicted less variability in happiness across days. Results indicate that reactive aggression is characterized by significant emotionality at the daily level, and proactive aggression is characterized by lack of emotionality.

Irritability and Limited Prosocial Emotions/Callous-Unemotional Traits in Elementary-School-Age Children

Affective traits, including irritability and limited prosocial emotions/callous-unemotional traits (LPE/CU), each explain significant variance in youth conduct problems but few studies have examined these constructs simultaneously. This study examined whether irritability, LPE/CU, or their combination explained significant variance in measures of internalizing or externalizing psychopathology, aggression, peer problems, impairment, or parenting. Participants were 219 elementary-school-age children, including 178 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and/or conduct disorder and 41 typically developing children. Results of analyses showed that irritability and LPE/CU had significant and sometimes unique associations with measures of child behavior, impairment, and parenting. There was also evidence that the interaction between irritability and LPE/CU was significantly associated with aggression and impairment. These findings suggest that irritability and LPE/CU should be examined together when assessing and treating conduct problems in youth.

Taming anger and trusting others: Roles of skin conductance, anger regulation, and trust in children's aggression

Proactive and reactive aggression subtypes are distinguishable as early as the preschool years. However, their early physiological and social-emotional correlates have not been examined simultaneously. We tested whether children's skin conductance level, anger regulation, and trust in others were differentially related to their proactive and reactive aggression. Four-year-olds and their primary caregivers were recruited from a large Canadian city (N = 150). Controlling for reactive aggression, higher trust was associated with lower proactive aggression, but only for children with low anger regulation or skin conductance level. Controlling for proactive aggression, lower anger regulation was related to higher reactive aggression, and higher trust was related to higher reactive aggression for children with high skin conductance level. Findings highlight the unique and collective relations of physiology, emotion regulation, and trust to different forms of aggression in early childhood. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject Proactive and reactive aggression subtypes are distinguishable as early as the preschool years. Unique physiological and social-emotional correlates of each subtype have been studied in middle and late childhood. Trust is a critical milestone for positive social interactions in early childhood and has been linked to aggression. What the present study adds Physiological and social-emotional correlates are uniquely linked to subtypes of aggression already at age 4. Trust is differentially linked to aggression subtypes as a function of anger regulation and skin conductance level.