Preliminary Examination of a Cartoon‐Based Hostile Attributional Bias Measure for Urban African American Boys

Leff, Stephen S.; Lefler, Elizabeth K.; Khera, Gagan S.; Paskewich, Brooke S.; Jawad, Abbas F.

doi:10.1007/s10464-011-9461-y

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…A recent study demonstrated strong psychometric properties of this cartoon-based adaptation combined with higher acceptability ratings than the traditional written vignette measure for a sample of urban African American girls (Leff et al 2006). A parallel study has demonstrated similar findings for a sample of urban African American boys (Leff et al 2007b). …”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 58%

Initial Validation of a Knowledge-Based Measure of Social Information Processing and Anger Management

Leff

Cassano

MacEvoy

et al. 2010

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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Over the past fifteen years many schools have utilized aggression prevention programs. Despite these apparent advances, many programs are not examined systematically to determine the areas in which they are most effective. One reason for this is that many programs, especially those in urban under-resourced areas, do not utilize outcome measures that are sensitive to the needs of ethnic minority students. The current study illustrates how a new knowledge-based measure of social information processing and anger management techniques was designed through a partnership-based process to ensure that it would be sensitive to the needs of urban, predominately African American youngsters, while also having broad potential applicability for use as an outcome assessment tool for aggression prevention programs focusing upon social information processing. The new measure was found to have strong psychometric properties within a sample of urban predominately African American youth, as item analyses suggested that almost all items discriminate well between more and less knowledgeable individuals, that the test-retest reliability of the measure is strong, and that the measure appears to be sensitive to treatment changes over time. In addition, the overall score of this new measure is moderately associated with attributions of hostility on two measures (negative correlations) and demonstrates a low to moderate negative association with peer and teacher report measures of overt and relational aggression. More research is needed to determine the measure's utility outside of the urban school context.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 58%

Initial Validation of a Knowledge-Based Measure of Social Information Processing and Anger Management

Leff

Cassano

MacEvoy

et al. 2010

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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“…Higher scores indicate higher levels of hostile attributional bias. The HAB has demonstrated strong psychometric properties (Leff, Cassano, et al, 2010; Leff et al, 2006, 2011); has been utilized in school-based intervention work with urban youth (Leff et al, 2009); and in the current study, is associated with internal consistencies of 0.73 and 0.83 for relational hostile attributional bias and overt hostile attributional bias, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Social cognitions, distress, and leadership self-efficacy: Associations with aggression for high-risk minority youth

Leff¹,

Baker²,

Waasdorp³

et al. 2014

Dev Psychopathol

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Urban ethnic minority youth are often exposed to high levels of aggression and violence. As such, many aggression intervention programs that have been designed with suburban nonethnic minority youth have been used or slightly adapted in order to try and meet the needs of high-risk urban youth. The current study contributes to the literature base by examining how well a range of social–cognitive, emotional distress and victimization, and prosocial factors are related to youth aggression in a sample of urban youth. This study utilized data gathered from 109 9- to 15-year-old youth (36.7% male; 84.4% African American) and their parents or caregivers. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were fit predicting youth aggression from social–cognitive variables, victimization and distress, and prosocial variables, controlling for youth gender and age. Each set of variables explained a significant and unique amount of the variance in youth aggressive behavior. The full model including all predictors accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression. Models suggest that youth with stronger beliefs supportive of violence, youth who experience more overt victimization, and youth who experience greater distress in overtly aggressive situations are likely to be more aggressive. In contrast, youth with higher self-esteem and youth who endorse greater leadership efficacy are likely to be less aggressive. Contrary to hypotheses, hostile attributional bias and knowledge of social information processing, experience of relational victimization, distress in relationally aggressive situations, and community engagement were not associated with aggression. Our study is one of the first to address these important questions for low-income, predominately ethnic minority urban youth, and it has clear implications for adapting aggression prevention programs to be culturally sensitive for urban African American youth.

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“…A particular strength of the PSS is that it was developed using a participatory action approach so that it would be appropriate for use with urban African American youth. Although urban African American youth are at elevated risk for engaging in aggression and violence (see Leff et al 2011), relevant assessment tools have rarely been designed to be culturally sensitive to this population (see Leff et al 2010a). Incorporating feedback from urban African American boys and girls into the development of the PSS resulted in a measure that was easily understood by and relevant to these youth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It seems unlikely that children in higher SES or less urban settings would as frequently report being exposed to these same kinds of incidents. Perhaps because of the hardships that urban African American youth more frequently face (see Leff et al 2011), they may not feel as much sympathy for peers who experience less extreme forms of aggression, such as name-calling and social exclusion. One important avenue for future research would be to compare the degree of sympathy that urban African American youth feel for peers who are the targets of peer aggression with the sympathy that youth who are not exposed to the same types of stressors feel for their peers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These youth are frequently exposed to factors that put them at risk for engaging in aggressive behavior, such as exposure to violence, lack of resources, and poverty (for a relevant discussion, see Leff et al 2011). Despite recognition that aggression is a significant problem among urban African American youth, measures of children’s concern have been developed using predominantly Caucasian samples (e.g., Holmgren et al 1998) or using samples in which ethnicity and race are not specified, thus making it impossible to know if minority youth are represented (e.g., Bryant 1982; Davis 1983; Jolliffe and Farrington 2006).…”

Section: Using Participatory Action Research To Develop a Measure Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children’s Sympathy for Peers Who Are the Targets of Peer Aggression

MacEvoy

Leff

2012

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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Although a goal of many aggression intervention programs is to increase children’s concern (often termed sympathy or empathy) for their peers as a means of ultimately reducing aggressive behavior, there are no measures specifically of children’s concern for peers who are the targets of peer aggression. A participatory action research (PAR) model was used to create a culturally-sensitive measure of urban African American children’s sympathy for peers who are the targets of physical aggression, relational or social aggression, verbal aggression, and property damage. In Study 1, 40 children (Mage =9.71 years; 47.5 % female) were interviewed about the types of incidents that lead them to feel sympathy for a peer. Based upon these findings, the 15-item Peer Sympathy Scale (PSS) was developed. In Study 2, the PSS was administered to 517 children (Mage=9.82 years; 47.4 % female) to examine the psychometric properties of the measure and to explore the association between children’s sympathy for their peers and their social behavior. Greater sympathy was associated with less overt and relational aggression according to both peer and teacher reports as well as with less oppositional-defiant behavior according to teacher reports. The clinical utility of the PSS as an outcome assessment tool for social skills intervention programs is discussed.

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Preliminary Examination of a Cartoon‐Based Hostile Attributional Bias Measure for Urban African American Boys

Cited by 11 publications

References 59 publications

Initial Validation of a Knowledge-Based Measure of Social Information Processing and Anger Management

Initial Validation of a Knowledge-Based Measure of Social Information Processing and Anger Management

Social cognitions, distress, and leadership self-efficacy: Associations with aggression for high-risk minority youth

Children’s Sympathy for Peers Who Are the Targets of Peer Aggression

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