Aggression, hostile attributions, status, and gender: a continued quest

This study had two goals. The first goal was to examine the association between two indicators of negative bias in children and their associations with children's aggression. The second goal was to examine a possible dual role of social status, operationalized as popularity, as a concurrent correlate of negative bias and as a moderator of the effect of negative bias on children's aggression. The roles of gender and type of aggression were also examined. Participants were 366 fifth- and sixth-grade children (49% girls; M age = 11.07 years, SD = 0.85 year) who completed peer- and self-report measures in their classrooms. The results showed that the two indicators of negative bias were associated with each other and with children's aggression. Popularity was weakly associated with negative bias. However, popularity did moderate the association of hostile attributions with aggression. The associations of both measures of negative bias with aggression also varied by gender, with stronger associations for boys than for girls. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.