Levels Of Proactive Aggression Research Articles

The Roles of Shame and Guilt in the Development of Aggression in Adolescents With and Without Hearing Loss

This longitudinal study examined how shame and guilt contribute to the development of reactive and proactive aggression in adolescents with and without hearing loss. Adolescents between 9 and 16 years old (adolescents with hearing loss (n = 80; Mage = 11.91) and without hearing loss (n = 227; Mage = 11.63)) completed self-reports on three occasions with an interval of 9 months. Mixed model analyses revealed that both reactive aggression and proactive aggression decreased with age, whereas shame and guilt peaked in early adolescence. Adolescents with hearing loss reported higher levels of proactive aggression, lower levels of shame and guilt, and showed protracted development for guilt compared to their hearing peers. In both groups, shame contributed to an increase in reactive aggression, whereas guilt contributed to a decrease in proactive aggression. These longitudinal associations highlight the unique role that shame and guilt play in the development of adolescent aggression.

Parental criticism moderates sibling influence on proactive and reactive aggression

Siblings’ influence on youth aggressive behavior has been found in previous studies, but further research is needed in order to better understand both the shared relations between siblings’ levels of proactive and reactive subtypes of aggression as well as the factors contributing to this relationship, such as parent behavior. The current study extended the literature by examining the influence of older siblings’ proactive and reactive aggression on younger siblings and whether these associations were influenced by levels of observed parental criticism. Participants were 50 parent–child dyads. Children in each dyad (52% female; 76% Caucasian) were between the ages of 10 and 15 (M = 11.52; SD = 1.25). Parent-reported measures of their younger and older siblings’ proactive and reactive aggression were collected. Next, parents and the younger child engaged in a conversation task which was coded for parental criticism using a modified version of the Family Interaction Task. Results demonstrated that older siblings’ reactive aggression was positively associated with younger siblings’ reactive aggression and that the strength of this influence depended on levels of parental criticism (β = 0.21; SE = 0.10; p 0.00), such that stronger sibling influence was observed at greater levels of parental criticism. No influence of older siblings’ levels of proactive aggression was evident. Findings suggest that the degree of parental criticism is particularly salient when examining the association between siblings’ aggression.

Psychopathic traits and gender as moderators of the parental arrest-proactive aggression link

This study explored the association between parental arrest and two functions of aggression (i.e., reactive and proactive aggression) among 797 Singaporean adolescents. The moderating effects of psychopathic traits and gender were also investigated in the parental arrest-reactive/proactive aggression link. Parental arrest was found to be significantly and positively related to both reactive and proactive aggression, especially proactive aggression. Psychopathic traits strengthened the link between parental arrest and proactive aggression in adolescents with stronger effects for girls in this Singaporean sample. These findings point to the importance of early intervention with respect to girls who display high levels of psychopathic traits, especially when they also have parents with a prior arrest history, so as to reduce their levels of proactive aggression.

Assessing Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Detained Adolescents Outside of a Research Context.

The Reactive Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) is a self-report tool for assessing reactive aggression (RA) and proactive aggression (PA). This study contributes to the literature by testing the psychometric properties of the RPQ across detained boys from various ethnicities whilst using data that were gathered during clinical assessments. The factorial, convergent, and criterion validity, and the internal consistency of the RPQ scores received strong support in the total sample and across four ethnicity groups. Also, three groups of boys were identified, with the group including boys with high levels of both RA and PA including the most severe boys in terms of anger, delinquency, alcohol/drug use, and psychopathic traits, and having the highest prevalence rate of conduct disorder and substance use disorder. Together, these findings suggest that the RPQ may hold promise for assessing RA and PA in detained boys, even when confidentiality and anonymity of the information is not guaranteed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10578-015-0553-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The effects of conflict resolution education on conflict resolution skills, social competence, and aggression in Turkish elementary school students

The purpose of the study was to implement ‘we can resolve our conflicts’ training program to elementary school students and to assess the effectiveness of this school-based conflict resolution training program, designed to enhance students’ conflict resolution skills and social competence and consequently decrease aggression. Three hundred and ninety-four elementary school students participated in the study. The training group consisted of 327 students and the control group consisted of 67 students. A pretest–posttest control group design was used. The training students received the conflict resolution training two times a week in 40 min sessions over a 10-week period. The conflict resolution training program included empathy, anger management, social problem solving, and cooperative conflict resolution skills. Before and after the training, both training and control groups were assessed in terms of their conflict resolution skills, social competence, and reactive and proactive aggression levels. Results indicated that the conflict resolution training increased students’ constructive conflict resolution skills and social competence and consequently decreased reactive and proactive aggression levels.

Longitudinal Investigation of the Link Between Proactive and Reactive Aggression and Disciplinary Actions in an After-School Care Program

The current study longitudinally investigated relations between proactive (goal-oriented, calculated) and reactive (response to perceived threat) aggression and disciplinary actions in an after-school care program in a sample of 147 school-age children (Mean age = 8.22 years; 54.4% male). In addition, perceived best friend delinquency was examined as a moderator of the relations between proactive and reactive aggression and disciplinary actions. As expected, high levels of proactive aggression were associated with high levels of disciplinary actions. Reactive aggression, in contrast, was negatively associated with disciplinary actions 2-months later. Finally, perceived best friend delinquency moderated the association between proactive, but not reactive, aggression and disciplinary actions. However, this interaction effect was only marginally statistically significant (p = .06). Implications for findings and future directions are discussed.

Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis Functioning in Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Children

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) reactivity and proactive and reactive aggression in pre-pubertal children. After a 30-min controlled base line period, 73 7-year-old children (40 males and 33 females) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental tasks designed to elicit fear (N = 33) or frustration (N = 32), or a validity check condition (N = 8). This was followed by a 60-min controlled regulation phase. A total of 17 saliva samples for cortisol analysis were collected including 12 post-stress samples at 5-min intervals. Reactive and proactive aggression levels were assessed via the teacher-completed Aggression Behavior Teacher Checklist (Dodge and Coie, J Pers Soc Psychol, 53(6), 1146-1158, 1987). Reactive aggression significantly predicted total and peak post-stress cortisol regardless of stress modality. Proactive aggression was not a predictor of any cortisol index. Examination of pure reactive, proactive, combined, or non-aggressive children indicated that reactive aggressive children had higher cortisol reactivity than proactive and non-aggressive children. Our data suggest that while an overactive HPA-axis response to stress is associated with reactive aggression, stress induced HPA-axis variability does not seem to be related to proactive aggression.