Abstract
Children with aggression problems tend to interpret other’s intentions as hostile in ambiguous social situations. Among clinically referred children with aggressive behavior problems, this hostile attribution style may be relatively rigid and difficult to change, due to prevalent histories of aversive social experience and/or personal vulnerability. The present study examined the effectiveness of a cognitive bias modification (CBM) training to reduce hostile interpretations of facial expressions in clinically referred aggressive boys. We conducted two experiments: Both Study 1 (N = 59, Mage = 11.8) and Study 2 (N = 75, Mage = 11.5) showed that the training effectively reduced hostile interpretation of facial expressions. However, we found no generalization to relevant other outcomes, including state anger and aggression (assessed using a multi-method approach), and hostile attribution assessed in a game context. Taken together, this research illustrates the potential of employing the CBM procedure to reduce aggressive boys’ hostile attributions: The procedure is time and cost-efficient, and relatively easily implemented. Despite this potential, the context-dependency and generalization of effects should be better understood before the procedure can be taken to scale in clinical populations.
Highlights
Aggressive children tend to over-attribute hostile intentions to others, primarily in ambiguous social situations (De Castro et al 2002; Dodge et al 2015; Nasby et al 1980)
Children with aggression problems differ in their social information processing (SIP) from less aggressive peers: They have an automatic tendency to interpret ambiguous social cues as hostile, known as “hostile attribution bias” (Crick and Dodge 1994; De Castro et al 2002; Dodge et al 2015; Nasby et al 1980), which is especially apparent in their interpretation of social cues (Crick and Dodge 1996; Dishion et al 1995; Dodge 2006)
We considered the possibility that a lack of effect on aggression was due, in part, to the aggression measure we used
Summary
Aggressive children tend to over-attribute hostile intentions to others, primarily in ambiguous social situations (De Castro et al 2002; Dodge et al 2015; Nasby et al 1980). Among clinically referred children with aggressive behavior problems, hostile schemata may be relatively rigid and more difficult to change due to prevalent histories of aversive social experiences or personal vulnerabilities (e.g., low IQ, difficult temperament, or impulsivity; Dodge 2006). Cognitive Therapy and Research (2019) 43:387–398 tested the effectiveness of a CBM training to target hostile attributions in clinically-referred children with aggressive behavior problems. If children have experienced hostility in the past, this often becomes readily available information in their schemata, and will influence them to make hostile interpretations again in the future (Dodge 2006) These hostile interpretations instigate more aggression, which might in turn provoke others to respond with hostility as well, thereby triggering a negative recursive cycle
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