Aggressive behavior and the socialization and regulation of anger in early adolescent friendships

Abstract

This research explored the relations among aggressive behavior, friend socialization of anger, and adaptive anger regulation within early adolescent friendships. Participants were 202 adolescents (52.50% girls; Mage = 12.68 years) who participated in 101 same-gender close friend dyads at an initial assessment (T1) and a second assessment two years later (T2). At T1, adolescents reported on their aggression, adaptive anger regulation, and on their friends’ socialization responses to anger at T1, and at T2 their own adaptive anger regulation. ActorPartner Interdependence Modeling (APIM) evaluated relations among aggression, anger socialization, and anger regulation. Adolescents’ T1 aggressive behavior was associated with lower supportive and greater unsupportive anger socialization within friendships, and with their lower T2 adaptive anger regulation. In turn, supportive anger socialization was associated with greater adaptive T2 anger regulation and unsupportive anger socialization with lower T2 adaptive anger regulation. Mediational analyses indicated that T1 aggressive behavior predicted lower T2 anger regulation indirectly through T1 greater unsupportive anger socialization. Results highlight how aggressive behavior may hinder healthy anger socialization processes within friendships and demonstrate the importance of friend emotion socialization as a venue in which adolescents may (or may not) learn adaptive ways of managing anger arousal.