Cognitive coping strategies and aggression in adolescents

Abstract

The analysis of psychological factors associated with aggressive behavior of adolescents is an important area of research of a scientific and practical nature. The aim of the study was to identify the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and physical aggression, anger and hostility in Polish and Ukrainian adolescents. The study involved 70 Polish and 63 Ukrainian teenagers aged 11 to 15 years. The research tools used in the study included the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire. It was found that primarily maladaptive strategies were strongly associated with hostility and to a somewhat lesser extent with anger. Within their cultures, boys and girls hardly differed in the results of the studied variables, which may indicate that gender does not differentiate the level of aggression and the frequency of use of cognitive coping strategies. On the basis of the obtained results it may be concluded that the main focus of preventive measures should be the development of effective coping skills aimed primarily at reducing the use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies such as self-blame, catastrophizing, rumination and blaming others.