Day‐to‐day friends’ victimization, aggression perpetration, and morning cortisol activity in late adolescents

Abstract

This study investigates bidirectional associations between adolescents’ daily experiences of victimization and aggression perpetration within friendships. We investigated (a) across‐day associations between victimization and aggression perpetration; (b) morning cortisol activity as a moderator of cross‐day victimization and aggression links; and (c) potential sex differences in these patterns. For 4 consecutive days, 99 adolescents (Mage = 18.06, SD = 1.09, 46 females) reported whether they were victimized by or aggressive toward their friends. On three of these days, adolescents provided three morning saliva samples. Multilevel path analyses showed that across days, victimization and aggression were bidirectionally linked, but only for male adolescents. Additionally, for male adolescents, morning cortisol output (but not morning cortisol increase) moderated the association between victimization and next‐day aggression; victimization predicted greater next‐day aggression for boys with low, but not high, morning cortisol output. Findings implicate a physiological factor that may modify daily links between victimization and aggression in male adolescent friendships.

Understanding aggression in adolescence by studying the neurobiological stress system: A systematic review.

“…The majority of these studies included adolescents from community samples in midto-late adolescence, with roughly equal numbers of boys and girls. These studies found negative associations with either general measures of aggression (such as with the Youth Self Report; Grotzinger et al, 2018; Platje, Jansen, et al, 2013; Platje, Vermeiren, et al, 2013; Platje, Popma, et al, 2015; Yu et al, 2016) or with physical aggression (Johnson et al, 2014; Yu et al, 2019), while Arbel et al (2019) found a negative association with aggression directed toward friends which included physical, relational, and digital aggression. Finally, in two of these studies testosterone was considered in the relation between cortisol and aggression: Grotzinger et al (2018) found that low cortisol related to higher levels of aggression under high levels of testosterone only, and Platje et al (2015) found that high testosterone relative to cortisol related to higher levels of general aggression.…”

“…Eleven studies tested the relation between basal cortisol (afternoon levels or CAR) and aggression. Of these, nine studies report a negative association, indicating that lower levels of cortisol or a lower CAR relate to higher levels of aggression (Arbel et al, 2019; Grotzinger et al, 2018; M. M. Johnson et al, 2014; Kimonis et al, 2017; Platje, Jansen, et al, 2013; Platje et al, 2015; Platje, Vermeiren, et al, 2013; Yu et al, 2016, 2019), but note that the Platje et al and Yu et al studies include the same longitudinal community sample. One study examined a sample of adolescent detained boys (Kimonis et al, 2017); finding that higher levels of cortisol related to lower levels of overt aggression.…”

“…For example, a number of studies examined associations between indices of the neurobiological stress system and aggression in the context of (social) adverse circumstances. These include experiencing peer victimization (Arbel et al, 2019; Gregson et al, 2014; Kliewer et al, 2012; McQuade et al, 2019), or growing up in adverse circumstances such as being maltreated, living in a bad neighbourhood (e.g., with high levels of violence), and having low income, uneducated (single) parents (Buckingham-Howes et al, 2016; Cui et al, 2019; Goulter et al, 2019; Portnoy et al, 2020; Raine et al, 2014; Yu et al, 2016). Four of these studies found that lower HPA-axis (i.e., lower cortisol/CAR) and lower ANS arousal (i.e., higher sympathetic, lower parasympathetic activity, lower HR), particularly in combination with high adversity, were related to higher levels of aggression (daily friend aggression: Arbel et al, 2019; self-reported aggression: Cui et al, 2019; teacher-reported aggression: Gregson et al, 2014; reactive aggression Raine et al, 2014).…”

“…These include experiencing peer victimization (Arbel et al, 2019; Gregson et al, 2014; Kliewer et al, 2012; McQuade et al, 2019), or growing up in adverse circumstances such as being maltreated, living in a bad neighbourhood (e.g., with high levels of violence), and having low income, uneducated (single) parents (Buckingham-Howes et al, 2016; Cui et al, 2019; Goulter et al, 2019; Portnoy et al, 2020; Raine et al, 2014; Yu et al, 2016). Four of these studies found that lower HPA-axis (i.e., lower cortisol/CAR) and lower ANS arousal (i.e., higher sympathetic, lower parasympathetic activity, lower HR), particularly in combination with high adversity, were related to higher levels of aggression (daily friend aggression: Arbel et al, 2019; self-reported aggression: Cui et al, 2019; teacher-reported aggression: Gregson et al, 2014; reactive aggression Raine et al, 2014). However, three studies found that low HPA-axis and ANS activity arousal in combination with low, or no adverse circumstances related to higher levels of parent/caregiver-reported aggression (Buckingham-Howes et al, 2016; Portnoy et al, 2020; Yu et al, 2016).…”

On the complex relationship between resilience and hair cortisol levels in adolescence despite parental physical abuse: a fourth wave of resilience research

“…In relation to peer victimization, Arbel et al. ( 76 ) observed a positive association with peer aggression for both males and females, along with the finding that in male adolescents, this association was bi-directional. Furthermore, Babarro et al.…”