The Relations among Observational, Physiological, and Self‐Report Measures of Children's Anger

Abstract

Our first goal was to examine the relations among observational, physiological, and self-report measures of children's anger. Our second goal was to investigate whether these relations varied by reactive or proactive aggression. Children (272 second-grade boys and girls) participated in a procedure in which they lost a game and prize to a confederate who cheated. Skin conductance reactivity, heart rate reactivity, selfreports of anger, angry facial expressions, and angry nonverbal behaviors were measured for each turn of the game. We used multi-level regressions to calculate the relations among the 10 pairs of the five anger variables over the course of the game. Six of the 10 pairs of anger variables were positively related. These findings suggest that measuring children's anger using any one approach may not capture the full complexity of children's overall experience and expression of anger. Furthermore, three of the 10 relations were stronger at higher levels of reactive aggression, although none varied by proactive aggression. These findings suggest that reactive aggression is related to greater cohesiveness in the experience and expression of anger than is proactive aggression.

Individual Differences in Responses to Provocation and Frequent Victimization by Peers

“…Kochenderf-Ladd also found that young school-age victims were not angrier than non-victims but were more likely than non-victims to be motivated to seek revenge [20]. Among older children associations between subjective feelings and observable displays are weak to non-existent [21][22][23], although children with stronger motivation to maintain positive social interactions are less likely to display anger or aggression in response to provocation [24][25][26]. Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of examining motivation and feelings as indicators of subjective emotional experience and including a range of contexts in measures of emotion processes [27].…”

Anxiety Symptoms Account for the Link between Reactive Aggression and Sleep Problems Among Latino Adolescents

“…In contrast, proactive aggression was not associated with anxiety and was unrelated to sleep problems once also considering the variance associated with reactive aggression. Proactive aggression is positively associated with callous-unemotional traits (i.e., a lack of guilt and remorse; Barry et al 2007;Fite et al 2009Fite et al , 2010 and unrelated to emotional arousal (Hubbard et al 2004(Hubbard et al , 2010. It appears that proactive aggression does not elicit the same negative emotions that produces anxiety (Fite et al 2010(Fite et al , 2012Raine et al 2006;Vitaro and Brendgen 2011) and ultimately results in sleep difficulties that reactive aggression elicits.…”

“…In contrast, proactive aggression has been linked to callous and unemotional traits (Barry et al 2007;Fite et al 2010;Fite et al 2009). Additionally, as stated above, only reactive aggression is positively linked to observable and physiological markers of emotional arousal (Hubbard et al 2004(Hubbard et al , 2010.…”

“…Arousal resulting from the experience of negative emotions may account for the link between reactive aggression and sleep problems. That is, reactive (but not proactive) aggression is associated with observable and physiological markers of emotional arousal (Hubbard et al 2010;Hubbard et al 2004), and physiological and psychological arousal contribute to sleep difficulties (Dahl 2006;El-Sheikh and Buckhalt 2005;Gregory and Sadeh 2012).…”

Linking Social Anxiety with Social Competence in Early Adolescence: Physiological and Coping Moderators

“…In essence, higher levels of SCLR in the present study may be thought of as the body metabolically stepping up to the plate to deal with the demands of the present situation. It is possible, however, that higher or excessive SCLR elicited by a more threatening or anxiety-inducing stressor would be maladaptive, as excessive SCLR may reflect high levels of anxiety (Beauchaine 2001) or anger (Hubbard et al 2004). Therefore, it would be informative for future research to examine possible quadratic associations between SCLR responses and social competence using stressors that elicit higher levels of emotional arousal and larger physiological responses.…”