Anger, shame and guilt in children with externalizing problems: An imbalance of affects?

Abstract

In two studies, we examined the extent to which children with behaviour problems are characterized by a predominance of anger and a relative absence of the moral emotions of guilt and shame. In the first study, a community sample (N = 48) was used, in the second study a clinical sample (N = 20) was compared to a control group of non-problematic children (N = 20). The results of these studies partially supported the anger-dominance hypothesis. The non-clinical group reported higher frequencies of daily anger and also more anger in response to ambiguous hypothetical situations (Study 1). The clinical group also demonstrated an anger bias. However, they only did so by a more implicit procedure: they added anger elements to their free descriptions of events eliciting negative emotions like fear, sadness, jealousy and shame (Study 2). In both studies, there was a tendency for children with behaviour problems to react with less intense guilt and shame to ambiguous situations.