Aggressive Behavior最新文献

Few studies have explored the potential impact of teacher preferences on students' peer relationships and their broader psycho-behavioral growth from the perspective of classroom peer ecology. To remedy this research gap, this study hypothesized and tested a serial mediation model in which teacher preference is related to adolescents' aggressive behavior via the indirect paths of forming peer rejection and shaping rejection sensitivity. Using a longitudinal design, two-wave data were obtained from 2270 Chinese adolescents (initial age = 13.93 ± 0.59, 50.7% boys) over 6 months. The results revealed that teacher preference was negatively associated with aggressive behavior in adolescents, and the mediation model indicated peer rejection and rejection sensitivity served as serial mediators between this link. Additionally, the current study examined the unique affiliations of anxiety and anger about rejection with aggressive behavior respectively, with results supporting them as distinct constructs and highlighting the significance of research integrating both forms of rejection sensitivity. Differences were also identified regarding the role of anxious rejection sensitivity in predicting proactive and reactive aggressive behaviors. The educational implications of these findings and directions for forthcoming research were discussed.

Our understanding of how bystanders respond to hate speech is limited. This may be due, in part, to the lack of available measurement tools. However, understanding adolescents’ responses to hate speech is critical because this kind of research can support schools in empowering students to exhibit courageous moral behavior. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the newly developed Multidimensional Bystander Responses to Hate Speech Scale (MBRHS) and to explore demographic differences and correlates of bystander behavior in school hate speech. The sample consisted of 3225 seventh to ninth graders from Germany and Switzerland. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a model with seven factors. We found that adolescents with immigrant background and boys showed particularly unfavorable response patterns. In addition, our study suggests that empathy is positively correlated with the factors comforting the victim, seeking help at school, and countering hate speech but negatively correlated with helplessness, revenge, reinforcing, and ignoring. Moral disengagement showed the opposite correlational pattern. The findings indicate that the MBRHS is a psychometrically valid and reliable measure that could aid in measuring varied responses to hate speech. In addition, this work highlights the relevance of empathy and moral engagement training in anti-hate speech prevention programs.

Recent evidence shows that a lower second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D), which is a sexually dimorphic trait and the indicator of prenatal testosterone exposure, may be associated with aggressive behaviors. In this cross-sectional, case-control study, we investigated: (1) Are the aggression and impulsivity levels and emotional problems higher? (2) Is the 2D:4D ratio lower in adolescents and young adults who presented with a fifth metacarpal neck fracture (boxer's fracture) compared to controls? (3) Is the digit ratio correlated with aggressive measures in individuals with a fifth metacarpal neck fracture? Seventy-one consecutive patients presented with a fifth metacarpal neck fracture within the age range of 11–25 years old comprised the study group. The control group consisted of 71 age and sex-matched subjects without a history of aggression-related injury. The aggression, impulsiveness, and psychosocial well-being were measured by self-reported questionnaires. 2D:4D was measured by conventional radiography. The 2D:4D ratio was similar between groups, however, when the analyses were conducted separately for sex, females in the study group showed lower 2D:4D than females in the control group (p = 0.001). The aggression level of the study group, measured by the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire was higher than the control group (p = 0.014). The impulsiveness scores on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 were similar (p = 0.60) and the total difficulty score on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was higher in the study group (p = 0.009). A lower 2D:4D ratio significantly predicted verbal and total aggression scores (p = 0.036, p = 0.032, respectively). Our findings suggest that females with a history of aggression-related injury have lower 2D:4D, and a lower 2D:4D is correlated with higher aggression levels in both sexes. Understanding and addressing aggression in these patients may help prevent further self-inflicted injuries.

Perpetrators perceive their aggressive behaviors as more justified than victims do. This difference in perception may be due to each person relying heavily on their private thoughts and experiences, which effectively means that perpetrators and victims consider different information, and value that information differently, when judging whether an aggressive behavior is justified. The current manuscript contains four studies that tested these ideas. When judging whether an aggressive behavior is justified, perpetrators reported relying heavily on their thoughts and motives (Studies 1–3) and victims reported relying heavily on their experience of being harmed (Study 2). Further, as people considered the perpetrator's thoughts that led to the aggressive behavior, perpetrators, but not victims, became more confident in their judgments (Study 3). Finally, when judging their aggressive behavior, people felt their judgments were less biased than a “typical person's” judgments would be (Study 4). Collectively, these studies demonstrate some of the cognitive reasons that perpetrators and victims disagree on their judgments about whether an aggressive behavior is justified and, consequently, some of the cognitive barriers that need to be overcome for successful conflict resolution to occur.

Although it is known that social dominance orientation directly affects hate speech perpetration, few studies have explored the mechanisms by which this effect takes place during adolescence. Based on the socio-cognitive theory of moral agency, we aimed to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the direct and indirect effects of social dominance orientation on hate speech perpetration in offline and online settings. The sample included seventh, eigth, and ninth graders (N = 3225) (51.2% girls, 37.2% with an immigrant background) from 36 Swiss and German schools who completed a survey about hate speech, social dominance orientation, empathy, and moral disengagement. A multilevel mediation path model revealed that social dominance orientation had a direct effect on offline and online hate speech perpetration. Moreover, social dominance also had indirect effects via low levels of empathy and high levels of moral disengagement. No gender differences were observed. Our findings are discussed regarding the potential contribution to preventing hate speech during adolescence.

Studies suggest both alexithymia and impulsivity (partially) explain aggressive behavior in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, but none of these studies use both questionnaire and performance-based measures as recommended, nor simultaneously investigate both impulsivity and alexithymia. The available studies therefore likely miss part of the constructs of alexithymia and impulsivity, and do not comprehensively assess the mediating effects of both constructs in the relationship between TBI and aggression. A sample of N = 281 incarcerated individuals were recruited from Dutch penitentiary institutions, and completed the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire (aggression), BIS-11 (impulsivity) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (alexithymia) questionnaires, as well as a stop-signal task and an emotion recognition paradigm. Several multiple mediation analyses were conducted using structural equation modelling, to assess the viability of a causal theoretical model of aggression. The final planned models were the original models with a good fit with the data (comparative fit index > 0.95, root mean square error of approximation and Standardized root mean square residual < 0.05), and results indicate that only questionnaire-based impulsivity mediated the relationship between TBI and aggression. TBI was unrelated to alexithymia, stop-signal or emotion recognition performance. Aggression was predicted by both alexithymia and impulsivity, but not by the performance measures. Post hoc analyses shows that alexithymia moderates the relationship between impulsivity and aggression. These results imply that aggressive incarcerated individuals showing impulsive behavior should be screened for TBI, since TBI is often overlooked or misdiagnosed, and indicate that both impulsivity and alexithymia are potential focus points for aggression reduction treatment in TBI patients.

Preschool children's reasoning regarding moral events differs according to adversity and relates to aggression. Understanding morality in young children is paramount for understanding their aggressive behaviors. The study aims to identify patterns of aggression and prosocial behavior using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and investigate how patterns of aggression and prosocial behavior relate to reasoning about prototypic moral events. One hundred six children (M_age = 4.40 years old, SD = 0.55 years old, Range: 3.08–5.33 years old, 51% boys) enrolled in Head Start programs and their caregivers participated. In the fall caregivers completed surveys on forms (i.e., the manifestation of behavior) and functions of aggression (i.e., motivation of behavior), and prosocial behavior. The following spring children completed two moral reasoning tasks that measured children's judgment and reasoning of harm, and their attributions of transgressors' reasoning. The LCA revealed a 3-class solution: (1) high levels of relational aggression and moderate levels of prosocial behavior (bistrategic controllers), (2) low levels of both aggression and average prosocial behavior (uninvolved), (3) high levels of all types of aggression and low levels of prosocial behavior (high aggression). Subsequent analyses suggest that uninvolved children prioritize adhering to authority over other concerns, and bistrategic controllers focused on goal-oriented reasoning. Overall, our findings support that recognizing patterns of behavior may be useful in understanding children's moral reasoning.

The study investigated psychosocial factors as predictors of aggressive behaviors among primary school learners in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study used a survey research design. All public primary school learners in Ekiti State formed the target population. A sample size of one thousand three hundred and fifty (1350) respondents was selected using a multistage sampling procedure, consisting of 641 males (47.5%) and 709 females (52.5%), ages 9–13 years, who participated in the study. A self-report instrument tagged “Learners' Aggressive Behaviours Questionnaire” (α indexes of .81, .70, .77, and .84 for the four components respectively) was used for data collection. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis at a 5% level of significance. The empirical findings revealed that parenting styles, peer influence, and self-control significantly predicted learners' aggressive behavior. Recommendations for curbing aggressive behavior among learners were highlighted.

The current study examined the state- and trait-level associations of psychological and physical aggression to somatic symptoms, and alcohol and drug use and tested the influence of distress tolerance on these associations, while controlling for stress, sex, and minority status. A naturalistic observation was used to collect data with a sample of 245 college students at three time points with 2 weeks apart. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to disaggregate within-person effects (autoregressive and cross-lagged effects) from the between-person (latent trait-level) associations. The findings revealed that there were autoregressive effects of psychological aggression between Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) and of physical aggression between T1 and T2. There was a bidirectional association between psychological aggression and somatic symptoms at T2 and Time 3 (T3), in which T2 psychological aggression predicted T3 somatic symptoms and verse vera. T1 drug use predicted T2 physical aggression, which in turn predicted T3 somatic symptoms, indicating physical aggression being a mediator between earlier drug use and later somatic symptoms. Distress tolerance was negatively associated with psychological aggression and somatic symptoms, respectively, and such an influence did not differ across time occasions. The findings indicated the importance of incorporating physical health in the prevention and intervention of psychological aggression. Clinicians may also consider including psychological aggression in the screening of somatic symptoms or physical health. Empirical-supported therapy components for enhancing distress tolerance may help mitigate psychological aggression and somatic symptoms.

The association between previous convictions and perpetrating homicide has been previously described but little is known about the characteristics of homicide offenders without previous convictions. By utilizing the unique database on homicide offenders held by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health, this study aimed to describe the sample of homicide perpetrators in England and Wales who have committed homicide as their first offense based on their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Compared with those with previous convictions, homicide offenders without previous convictions were more likely to be female and a member of an ethnic minority group. More of those without previous convictions belonged to the youngest (<25) and oldest (>55) age groups and were more likely to kill somebody family member or a spouse. Schizophrenia and other delusional disorders as well as affective disorders were more prevalent in those without previous convictions as were mental illness/insanity as a circumstance in homicide, but those without previous convictions were less likely to have been in previous contact with mental health services. There are clear sociodemographic and clinical differences between homicide perpetrators with and without previous convictions. Implications of these findings are discussed.