Temporal stability of relational aggression profiles in adolescents

Understanding Romantic Relational Aggression in Emerging Adults Using Latent Profile Analysis of Jealousy and Hostile Attribution Bias

The present study sought to identify profiles of 753 emerging adults (62.5% females) with different levels of hostile attribution bias (HAB) and jealousy dimensions (i.e., cognitive, emotional, behavioral) and examined differences in their levels of romantic relational aggression (RoRAgg) across profiles. Participants were recruited from Greek universities and completed and online survey. Using a person-centered approach, Latent Profile Analysis indicated the presence of three profiles of participants: a) jealous and hostile intent attributers who had high scores on jealousy dimensions and HAB, b) low risk who scored low on jealousy and HAB, and c) emotionally jealous and moderate hostile intent attributers with moderate cognitive and behavioral jealousy as well as HAB, and high emotional jealousy. As predicted, jealous and hostile intent attributers scored higher on RoRAgg compared with emotionally jealous and moderate hostile intent attributers and low risk. The findings confirm previous research and are discussed in terms of their implications. Interventions targeting relational aggressor's hostile attributions, cognitive suspicions, and negative thoughts should be implemented to reduce RoRAgg.

Reactive and Proactive Aggression among Children and Adolescents: A Latent Profile Analysis and Latent Transition Analysis

The present study aimed to explore children’s and adolescents’ profiles of reactive and proactive aggression and the stability of those profiles over a six-month period using latent profile analysis (LPA) and latent transition analysis (LTA). Data were collected at two measurement points from a sample of N = 1468 children and adolescents aged from 9 to 18 years. Results of LPA revealed three distinct profiles, labeled as “Severe Reactively and Proactively Aggressive (S-RA-PA)”, “Highly Reactively and Proactively Aggressive” (H-RA-PA), and “Moderately Low Reactively and Proactively Aggressive” (M-RA-PA). All profiles appeared to be relatively stable over six months, supporting their within-sample consistency. The most stable and largest profile was the “M-RA-PA” profile, while the least stable and smallest profile was the “S-RA-PA” profile. However, there was also some within-person variability in children’s and adolescents’ profile membership because almost 40–50% of the participants of the “S-RA-PA” and “H-RA-PA” profiles transitioned to another profile across six months. In contrast, more than 90% of the participants of the “M-RA-PA” profile remained in their profile. These results provide a dynamic picture of children’s and adolescents’ development of reactive and proactive aggression and bear several implications from a short longitudinal person-oriented perspective.