Differential Associations Between Perceived Containment and the Forms of Proactive and Reactive Functions of Aggression Among Elementary School-Age Youth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Further research is needed to evaluate associations between perceived containment and proactive and reactive aggression to further inform prevention and intervention approaches. The current study advanced extant research by examining associations between perceived containment and overt and relational subtypes of proactive and reactive functions of aggression and by examining anger dysregulation as a moderator of these associations among elementary school-age youth (51.4% female; M age = 9.3 years). Youth self-reports of measures were obtained and used for analyses. Findings indicated that perceived containment and anger dysregulation are both more strongly linked to reactive aggression than proactive aggression, and the association between perceived containment and reactive relational aggression was only evident at high levels of anger dysregulation. These results suggest that both perceived containment and anger dysregulation need to be targeted for the prevention of both overt and relational reactive aggression, but not necessarily proactive aggression.