Empathy and Effortful Control Effects on Early Adolescents’ Aggression: When Do Students’ Perceptions of Their School Climate Matter?

Abstract

Guided by the social emotional learning framework, this study examined whether early adolescents’ social awareness (empathic concern, perspective taking) and self-management (effortful control) would uniquely contribute to early adolescents’ subsequent forms of aggression, and whether perceptions of their school climate (friction, cohesion, competition, satisfaction with classes) would moderate those associations. Participants were 479 10- to 14-year old students (54% female; 78% European American) who completed the first wave of a survey in sixth and seventh grades and the second wave 1 year later. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that across gender, empathic concern was the only competency to reduce subsequent overt and relational aggression. None of the school climate perceptions made unique contributions to aggression, nor did they show protective functions. Rather, several instances of cumulative advantage were observed, whereby positive school climate perceptions only reduced aggression for students with high levels of empathic concern. Unexpectedly, boys’ perceived cohesion contributed to overt aggression if they reported high levels of effortful control.