Reactive and proactive aggression in school children and psychiatrically impaired chronically assaultive youth.

Abstract

The authors proposed that reactively aggressive and proactively aggressive types of antisocial youth would differ in developmental histories, concurrent adjustment, and social information-processing patterns. In Study 1, 585 boys and girls classified into groups called reactive aggressive, proactive aggressive, pervasively aggressive (combined type), and nonaggressive revealed distinct profiles. Only the reactive aggressive groups demonstrated histories of physical abuse and early onset of problems, adjustment problems in peer relations, and inadequate encoding and problem-solving processing patterns. Only the proactive aggressive groups demonstrated a processing pattern of anticipating positive outcomes for aggressing. In Study 2, 50 psychiatrically impaired chronically violent boys classified as reactively violent or proactively violent demonstrated differences in age of onset of problem behavior, adjustment problems, and processing problems.

Characterizing aggressive behavior with the Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scale among adolescents with conduct disorder

“…While the PM factor showed relationships with four measures of personality and impaired function: Psychoticism (EPQ-J), and Anger, Verbal Aggression, and Physical Aggression (BPAQ), the IA factor in these adolescents included relationships with ten of the measures of personality and impaired function: Neuroticism and Psychoticism (EPQ-J), Physical Aggression and Anger (BPAQ), and a variety of emotional, thought, and social adjustment problems (YSR). Overall, these findings support the assertion that those who emit predominantly impulsive-type aggression exhibit more impaired functioning across a variety of domains related to thought, emotional regulation, and personality (Dodge et al, 1997;Waschbusch et al, 1998), while predominantly premeditated types of aggressors have a relatively focused personality disturbance (Houston et al, 2003;Stanford et al, 2003b).…”

“…Children with premeditated aggression tend to expect positive outcomes from aggressive actions and lack remorse or empathy regarding the use of force (Smithmyer et al, 2000), which may lead to the tendency to use aggression as a tool to achieve a desired outcome. Additionally, children who are rated as more premeditated in their use of aggression have relatively normal parent interactions, peer relations, and ratings of self-worth (Dodge et al, 1997) and are less impaired overall in comparison to their impulsive aggressive counterparts (Waschbusch et al, 1998). The child and adult aggression literature together supports the conclusion that premeditated aggression may be best characterized by a disturbance of personality rather than the cognitive or cortico-physiological disturbances observed with the impulsive-aggressive subtype.…”

“…Further, impulsive aggression is associated with self-reported impulsivity, neuroticism, physical aggression, and anger (Stanford et al, 2003a). While the adult literature has largely focused on cognitive and biological mechanisms involved in impulsive aggression, the research on childhood aggression tends to focus on social information processing, peer relations, and emotional dysregulation (Dodge et al, 1997;Waschbush et al, 1998). Specifically, impulsive aggression in children is associated with high levels of hostile behaviors and hostile attribution bias (Schwartz et al, 1998).…”

“…Specifically, impulsive aggression in children is associated with high levels of hostile behaviors and hostile attribution bias (Schwartz et al, 1998). Compared to children with premeditated forms of aggression, impulsive-aggressive children have higher ratings on measures of neuroticism, including numerous somatic and anxious/depressive symptoms (Dodge et al, 1997). Socially, impulsive aggression in children is related to rejection and early childhood physical abuse from parents (Dodge et al, 1995) and victimization by peers (Dodge and Coie, 1987;Schwartz et al, 1998).…”

“…Studies on classification of aggression have tended to sample either adults (e.g. Barratt et al, 1997a) or young children (e.g., kindergarten through 3 rd grade; Dodge et al, 1997) and, as a result, understanding of impulsive or premeditated aggression in the developmentally distinct period of adolescence is limited, despite the long history of interest in adolescent aggression (e.g., Dollard et al, 1939). Further, many of the adult studies examining subtypes of aggression have excluded participants with DSM Axis I and II disorders (e.g., Mathias and Stanford, 1999;Villemarette-Pittman et al, 2002;Stanford et al, 2003a), even though studies with children suggest psychiatric condition is relevant to dichotomizing aggressive subtypes (e.g., Dodge et al, 1997).…”