Abstract
This short-longitudinal study analyzed the cross-sectional and longitudinal pathways linking adolescent’s quality of attachment to parents and peers and their practice of aggressive and prosocial behavior; it also explored the moderation effect of gender on those pathways. A total of 375 secondary school students (203 girls and 172 boys), aged between 15 and 19 years old, completed the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment and the Peer Experience Questionnaire - Revised twice, within a four-month gap. Using a path analyses approach, results showed that aggression and prosocial behavior were the strongest predictors of themselves overtime. Attachment to mother had a cross-sectional effect on aggression and on prosocial behavior via attachment to peers, and attachment to peers predicted prosocial behavior; overall, the higher the quality of attachment, the lowest the practice of aggression and the highest the practice of prosocial behavior. These effects held stable for boys and girls, though gender-based differences were found in mean levels of attachment to peers and social behaviors. Even if other variables may be in place when understanding adolescents’ social behaviors, attachment to mother and peers also seem to play a relevant role in trying to achieve safer and more positive school climates. Suggestions on how to accomplish this are shortly discussed.
Highlights
Though recently decreasing, the practice of aggressive acts between adolescents is still a worrisome reality (Inchley et al, 2020), as it has been found to be a stable form of behavior (Scholte et al, 2007)
Overt aggression predicted itself and other forms of aggression over time, indicating that it may transform as adolescents realize which aggressive acts are susceptible to punishment by the school system, justifying that the practice of overt forms of aggression decline with age (Inchley et al, 2020)
As physical forms of aggression become increasingly punished, adolescents may turn to relational or reputational aggression and practice it more frequently, especially toward peers with whom they spend most of their time, in detriment of time spent with parents (Moretti and Peled, 2004)
Summary
The practice of aggressive acts between adolescents is still a worrisome reality (Inchley et al, 2020), as it has been found to be a stable form of behavior (Scholte et al, 2007) Such acts hold the intention of causing damage to a victim and may be in the form of overt aggression (e.g., hitting, teasing, or kicking), relational aggression, which uses relationships as weapons by manipulating between-peer relationships (e.g., excluding someone from social activities), or reputational aggression, as a way of using others to damage the victim’s social reputation within the group hierarchy (e.g., telling others to dislike someone, spreading gossips or rumors; Card et al, 2008; Heilbron and Prinstein, 2008). Only a minority of works considered attachment to parents and peers simultaneously, as they may serve to better understand how adolescent aggressive and prosocial behavior unfolds
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