To test specific hypotheses about the relation between hostile intent attribution (HIA) and children’s aggressive behavior, a multilevel meta‐analysis was conducted on 111 studies with 219 effect sizes and 29.272 participants. A positive association between HIA and aggression was found, but effect sizes varied widely between studies. Results suggested that HIA is a general disposition guiding behavior across a broad variety of contexts, whereas the strength of the relation between HIA and aggression depends on the level of emotional engagement. The relation is stronger for more reliable HIA measures, but is not stronger for reactive aggression or co‐morbid attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder than for aggression in general. The importance of understanding specific moderators of effect size for theory development is discussed.
Although immigrant adolescents are at least at equal risk of developing internalizing problems as their non-immigrant peers, immigrant adolescents are less likely to use mental health care. The present study is the first to examine ethnic differences in problem identification to find explanations for this disparity in mental health service use. Specifically, the extent to which emotional problem identification mediates the relationship between immigrant status and mental health service use for internalizing problems in three immigrant populations in the Netherlands (i.e., Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan) was investigated. A two-phase design was used to include adolescents at risk for internalizing problems. Data were used from the second phase, in which 349 parents and adolescents participated (95 native Dutch, 85 Surinamese, 87 Turkish, and 82 Moroccan). Results indicated that mental health service use for internalizing problems is far lower among immigrant adolescents than among native Dutch adolescents, although differences between immigrant groups were also substantive. A lack of emotional problem identification was identified as an essential mediator in the relationship between immigrant status and mental health service use. Since the results suggest the low levels of problem identification in our immigrant samples may serve an explanatory role in the relationship between immigrant status and mental health service use, future research should aim at understanding these ethnic differences in problem identification.
Children adapt their behaviour to their social environment through adequate social information processing (SIP). According to the SIP model, social information processing is goal oriented. Yet the subjective experience of reactively and severely aggressive children seems to be that their behaviour is impelled by uncontrollable rage, with no other goal in mind than venting anger and spite. To test whether reactive and proactive aggression by severely aggressive boys were related with experiences of goal directedness, 52 highly aggressive and 30 normal comparison boys were asked to explain their responses to hypothetical provocations by peers. Both highly aggressive and normal comparison boys primarily explained generation and selection of aggressive responses to provocation situations by feeling impelled to act by strong emotions, not with reference to outcome goals. Reactive aggression was specifically related with such emotion explanations for aggression. Moreover, highly aggressive boys more frequently advocated aggression by referring to emotions and referring to a moral rule that taking revenge is imperative, regardless of its consequences. Highly aggressive boys expected their responses to have more negative relational outcomes than comparison boys.
For scientific as well as clinical use of the CDI, measurement bias with respect to gender and age should be accounted for.
Children's aggressive behaviour is partly determined by how they process social information (e.g., making hostile interpretations or aiming to seek revenge). Such aggressive social information processing (SIP) may be most evident if children are emotionally engaged in actual social interactions. Current methods to assess aggressive SIP, however, often ask children to reflect on hypothetical vignettes. This pilot study therefore examined a new method that actually involves children in emotionally engaging social interactions: interactive virtual reality (VR).We developed a virtual classroom where children could play games with virtual peers. A sample of boys (N = 32; ages 8-13) from regular and special education reported on their SIP in distinct VR contexts (i.e., neutral, instrumental gain and provocation). They also completed a standard vignette-based assessment of SIP.Results demonstrated good convergent validity of interactive VR assessment of SIP, as indicated by significant moderate to large correlations of VR-assessed SIP with vignette-assessed SIP for all SIP variables except anger. Interactive VR showed improved measurement sensitivity (i.e., larger variances in SIP compared to vignettes) for aggressive responding, but not for other SIP variables. Discriminant validity (i.e., distinct SIP patterns across contexts) of interactive VR was supported for provocation contexts, but not for instrumental gain contexts. Last, children were more enthusiastic about the VR assessment compared to the vignette-based assessment.These findings suggest that interactive VR may be a promising tool, allowing for the assessment of children's aggressive SIP in standardized yet emotionally engaging social interactions.
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