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Do hostile attribution biases in children and parents predict relationally aggressive behavior?
1Washington State University, Department of Human Development, 501 Johnson Tower, Pullman, WA 99164-4852, USA. nwerner@wsu.edu
The Journal of Genetic Psychology
|August 28, 2012
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Limited understanding of hostile attributions in children's relational aggression.
- Need to explore family influences on children's attributions of peer provocations.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate links between hostile attributions (children, mothers, fathers) and children's relational aggression.
- Examine gender and family factors in these associations.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study with 91 children (Grades 3-5), 90 mothers, 88 teachers, and 53 fathers.
- Assessed hostile attributions and relational aggression using multiple informants.
Main Results:
- Relational aggression linked to hostile attribution bias in children and parents.
- Associations varied by child gender, parent gender, provocation type, and aggression informant.
- Mothers' attributions more strongly related to daughters' attributions and aggression.
Conclusions:
- Hostile attribution bias plays a role in children's relational aggression.
- Family processes, particularly maternal attributions, influence this bias.
- Findings inform social information processing models and family-based interventions for relational aggression.
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