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.

The present study examined whether there are distinct groups of children with reactive versus proactive motives for their aggressive behavior. We extended previous research by using a person-based analytical approach on data from a questionnaire assessing children’s motives independently from the severity of their aggression. Two competing hypotheses were tested. The both subtypes hypothesis holds that both reactive and proactive subtypes exist, as well as a mixed subtype. The reactive only hypothesis holds that only reactive and mixed subtypes exist. Hypotheses were tested on existing data from a community sample of children displaying aggression (Study 1: n = 228, ages 10–13, 54% boys), and two clinical samples of children with aggressive behavior problems (Study 2: n = 115, ages 8–13, 100% boys; Study 3: n = 123, ages 6–8, 78% boys). Teachers reported on children’s reactive and proactive motives. We selected measures available from peers, parents, teachers, and children themselves to compare the supported subtypes on variables that previous literature suggests uniquely correlate with reactive versus proactive aggression. Confirmatory latent profile analyses revealed that the both subtypes hypothesis best fit the data of all three samples. Most children were classified as reactive (55.7–61.8% across samples), with smaller percentages classified as proactive (10.4–24.1%) and mixed (18.0–33.9%). However, these subtypes only differed in expected directions on 7 out of 34 measures. Overall, results support the existence of both reactive and proactive subtypes of aggressive children, but the distinctiveness of these subtypes in terms of social-emotional characteristics warrants further study.

How do children with aggressive behavior problems view themselves? The present research seeks to answer this question by examining the self-views (i.e., self-esteem and narcissism) of boys referred for disruptive behavior problems. In Study 1 (N = 85, Mage= 10.8 years), we examined relations between self-views and self-reported and parent-reported aggression; in Study 2 (N = 73, Mage= 11.8 years), we examined relations between self-views and teacher-reported aggression. We found narcissism to be related with self-reported aggression, but not with parent-and teacher-rated aggression. Children with narcissistic traits were more aggressive according to themselves, and these links were independent of children's level of self-esteem. Self-esteem was not significantly associated with aggression according to children themselves, their parents, nor their teachers. We encourage scholars to explore the possibility that interventions that target characteristics of narcissistic self-views (e.g., perceived superiority, sensitivity to negative feedback) can effectively reduce aggressive behavior in boys referred for behavior problems.