Abstract
BackgroundAs a prominent issue worldwide, juveniles’ aggressive and violent crimes have attracted much interest in recent years. Based on the social information processing model, the present study aimed to evaluate the Chinese male juvenile delinquents’ attention bias towards hostile stimuli from both static and dynamic perspectives. Additionally, the predictive effect of attention bias on aggressive behavior and the moderating effect of group (juvenile delinquents and the controls with no criminal history) were also investigated.MethodsThe hostile attention bias and aggressive behavior of 76 juvenile delinquents (Mage = 17.5 years, SD = 0.59 years) and 67 controls (Mage = 18.3 years, SD = 0.73 years) were measured with the emotional dot-probe task, emotional Stroop task, and the Chinese version of the Buss & Perry aggression questionnaire, respectively.ResultsThe results showed that compared with controls, juvenile delinquents showed more attention biases towards hostile faces and words, and demonstrated higher levels of physical aggression and anger. Furthermore, the type of participants moderated the relationship between hostile attention bias and aggressive behavior. For juvenile delinquents, attention bias away from hostile stimuli and attention variability negatively predicted anger, while for controls, attention variability positively predicted self-directed aggression.ConclusionAttentional variability and avoidance of hostile stimuli are expected to reduce the aggressive level of Chinese male juvenile delinquents. The relationship between attention bias and aggression should be further considered and applied in the clinical practice.
Highlights
As a prominent issue worldwide, juveniles’ aggressive and violent crimes have attracted much interest in recent years
Considering the severity of the status quo of juvenile violent crime in China, the importance of timely modification of aggression, and the scarcity of previous research, much attention should be paid to the Chinese juvenile delinquents and their maladaptive aggressive behaviors
Considering the significant differences in age and neutral trials (N-RT) between juvenile delinquents and controls, these variables were entered as covariates in further analysis
Summary
As a prominent issue worldwide, juveniles’ aggressive and violent crimes have attracted much interest in recent years. Based on the social information processing model, the present study aimed to evaluate the Chinese male juvenile delinquents’ attention bias towards hostile stimuli from both static and dynamic perspectives. Previous studies in the context of Eastern cultures have mostly focused on the aggressive behavior of the general adolescents or the adult criminals, but scarcely on juvenile delinquents [13]. Considering the severity of the status quo of juvenile violent crime in China, the importance of timely modification of aggression, and the scarcity of previous research, much attention should be paid to the Chinese juvenile delinquents and their maladaptive aggressive behaviors. Among the impact factors of aggressive behavior, biased social cognition, especially the attention bias towards hostile stimuli, has been seen as a basis for the development and maintenance of aggression [14]. Attention bias towards negative stimuli makes it easier for individuals to feel threatened, form hostile interpretations and generate hostile cognitive beliefs, which contributed to the development of general aggressive tendencies [19,20,21]
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