Executive function and theory of mind as predictors of aggressive and prosocial behavior and peer acceptance in early childhood

Executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) are related to children's social interactions, such as aggression and prosocial behavior, as well as their peer acceptance. However, limited research has examined different forms of aggression and the moderating role of gender. This study investigated links between EF, ToM, physical and relational aggression, prosocial behavior and peer acceptance and explored whether these relations are gender specific. Children (N = 106) between 46‐ and 80‐months‐old completed tasks assessing cool and hot EF and ToM. Teaching staff rated children's aggression, prosocial behavior, and peer acceptance. EF and ToM predicted physical, but not relational, aggression. Poor inhibition and delay of gratification were uniquely associated with greater physical aggression. EF and ToM did not predict prosocial behavior or peer acceptance. Added to this, gender did not moderate the relation between either EF or ToM and social outcomes. The correlates of aggression may therefore differ across forms of aggression but not between genders in early childhood.     

Media Exposure, Aggression and Prosocial Behavior During Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study

Preschool children (N = 78) enrolled in multi‐informant, multi‐method longitudinal study were participants in a study designed to investigate the role of media exposure (i.e., violent and educational) on concurrent and future aggressive and prosocial behavior. Specifically, the amount of media exposure and the nature of the content was used to predict concurrent and future physical, verbal and relational aggression as well as prosocial behavior for girls and boys. This two‐year longitudinal study found that media exposure predicted various subtypes of aggression and prosocial behavior. These findings are qualified by the gender of the focal child. That is, parental reports of media exposure were associated with relational aggression for girls and physical aggression for boys at school. Ways in which these findings extend our understanding of the role of media during early childhood are discussed.     

Young Children's Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors and Their Experiences of Being Targeted for Similar Behaviors by Peers

Children's target experiences (as recipients of prosocial peer acts and victims of peer aggression) were investigated for their concurrent and longitudinal associations with prosocial and aggressive behavior. Forty‐four children (initially 22–40 months) were observed in naturalistic interactions with peers during a two‐month period for each of three consecutive years. Results revealed no consistency over time in children's experiences as targets for aggressive or prosocial peer acts, although there was some indication that altruistic target experiences may be stable from the end of the preschool period. Early behavior appeared to affect the way children were later treated by peers, but no support was found for the idea that early target experiences influence later behavior. Prosocial behavior was concurrently and longitudinally associated with prosocial target experiences. Aggressive behavior reduced the likelihood of children being targets of prosocial peer behavior and, over time, also of their being targets of peers’ aggression.     

The Relationship Between Indirect and Physical Aggression on Television and in Real Life

Viewing indirect aggression on television has been shown to have negative short‐term effects on a viewer's subsequent aggressive behavior; however, the longer term relationship between viewing indirect aggression on television and in real life has not yet been examined. Three hundred and forty‐seven adolescents, aged 11–14, were asked to list their five favorite television programs. These programs were analyzed for the amount and type of aggression they contained. Peer‐nominated indirect aggression was predicted by other aggressive behavior, sex, and televised indirect aggression. In particular, indirectly aggressive girls viewed more indirect aggression on television than any other group. Peer‐nominated physical aggression was predicted by other aggressive behavior and sex, but not by televised physical or indirect aggression. This study provides a starting point for future long‐term research on the effect of viewing indirect aggression in the media.     

Aggression in toddlerhood: The roles of parental beliefs,parenting behavior and precursors of theory of mind

Parental beliefs, parenting behavior, and precursors of theory of mind have been related uniquely to each other and to early aggression, but have not yet been studied simultaneously. The present study combined these risk factors in the prediction of aggression during toddlerhood using a sample of 152 mother–child dyads. At 20 months, mothers' parental beliefs (parental self‐efficacy and perceived parental impact) were examined with the Parental Cognitions and Conduct Toward the Infant Scale. Maternal parenting behavior (sensitivity, intrusiveness, and successful positive engagement) was observed during free play and teaching tasks, and children's precursors of theory of mind were assessed using a visual perspectives task and an imitation task. At 30 months, child aggression was examined using the Child Behavior Checklist. A regression analysis indicated that lower parental self‐efficacy and lower imitation skills predicted more aggressive behavior. When estimating the indirect effects using bootstrapping, a final model was found indicating that lower perceived parental impact was related to less successful positive engagement, which, in turn, was associated with children's poorer imitation abilities which predicted more aggressive behavior. It can be concluded that aggression during toddlerhood is predicted significantly by interrelated parental beliefs, parenting behavior, and children's early social cognitive abilities.     

Links between friends’ behaviors and the emergence of leadership in childhood: A genetically informed study of twins

Using a genetically informed design, this study examined whether children's leadership behavior varied as a function of their reciprocal friends’ behavioral characteristics. Specifically, we tested (a) whether friends’ use of a dual strategy (specifically, indirect aggression with prosocial behavior) was associated with children's leadership behavior and (b) whether, in line with a gene‐environment interaction (GxE), the predictive association between friends’ behaviors and children's leadership behavior varied depending on the child's genetic likelihood for leadership. The sample comprised 239 Monozygotic and same‐sex Dizygotic twin pairs (50% boys) assessed in grade 4 (mean age = 10.4 years, SD = 0.26). Reciprocal friendship and children's and their friends’ prosocial, indirectly aggressive, and physically aggressive behaviors were measured via peer nominations. Children's and friends’ leadership was measured through teacher ratings. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that children's genetic likelihood for leadership was positively associated with their leadership behavior. Moreover, the higher their genetic likelihood for leadership, the more children displayed increased leadership behavior when friends showed a combination of indirect aggression and prosocial behavior (GxE). These results underline the role of friends’ behaviors in explaining children's leadership. Socializing with bistrategic friends seems to foster leadership skills especially in children with a genetic likelihood for leadership.     

Empathy and Observed Anger and Aggression in Five-Year-Olds

In Roberts and Strayer (1996 ), we reported that emotional expressiveness and anger were important predictors of empathy for school‐age children, and that empathy strongly predicted prosocial behaviors aggregated across methods and sources. In this paper, we report how empathy was associated with direct observations of anger and aggression in peer play groups. Twenty‐four initially unacquainted five‐year‐old children (50% girls) were randomly assigned to six same‐sex groups; each group met for three one‐hour play sessions. Physical and verbal aggression, object struggles and anger were coded from videotapes, as were prosocial and social behaviors. As expected, empathy (aggregated across methods and sources) was negatively associated with aggression and anger, and positively associated with prosocial behaviors. Although children who were more angry were also more aggressive, anger and aggression did not covary across play sessions as a simple causal model requires. These results suggest further directions for research in emotions and aggression.     

The Friendship Features of Preschool Children: Links with Prosocial Behavior and Aggression

This study assessed features of young children's friendships and determined whether the features reported were associated with prosocial and aggressive behavior. Teachers completed the friendship features questionnaires (FFQ) on the mutual friendships in their class identified by the 98 children who were interviewed (M age =3.91 years). Four subscales (support, conflict, exclusivity/intimacy, and asymmetry) were differentiated from the 36‐item questionnaire. Teacher reports of friendship features showed moderate inter‐rater reliability and were associated with teacher reports of aggression and prosocial behavior and peer reports of acceptance and rejection. Friendship support was positively correlated with prosocial behavior, friendship conflict was positively correlated with overt aggression and peer rejection, and friendship exclusivity/intimacy was positively associated with relational aggression and negatively with peer acceptance. Findings are consistent with research on school age children's friendship features and their behavioral correlates.     

Children's Moral Reasoning Regarding Physical and Relational Aggression

Elementary school children's moral reasoning concerning physical and relational aggression was explored. Fourth and fifth graders rated physical aggression as more wrong and harmful than relational aggression but tended to adopt a moral orientation about both forms of aggression. Gender differences in moral judgments of aggression were observed, with girls rating physical and relational aggression as more wrong and relational aggression as more harmful than boys. In addition, girls were more likely to adopt a moral orientation when judging physical and relational aggression and girls more often judged relational aggression than physical aggression from the moral domain. Finally, moral reasoning about aggression was associated with physically and relationally aggressive behavior. Considered together, the results indicate that children tend to adopt a moral orientation about aggression, but that they nonetheless differentiate between physical and relational aggression in their moral judgments.     

Linkages between Children's Beliefs about the Legitimacy of Aggression and Their Behavior

The purposes of this study were to learn whether children's beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression can be reliably assessed and whether these beliefs relate to children's everyday social behavior with peers, as well as their responses to hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations. Fourth- and fifth-grade students ( n = 781) responded to a 16-item questionnaire designed to measure children's beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression. Children's behavioral orientation was assessed using two methods: (1) children's responses to ten hypothetical situations involving ambiguous provocation, and (2) peer evaluations of children's aggressive, withdrawn, and prosocial behavior. Results indicated that children's beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression were reliably measured. Furthermore, results from both measures of behavioral style showed that children who believed strongly in the legitimacy of aggression were more aggressive, less withdrawn, and less prosocial. The findings suggest that one focus of efforts to decrease children's aggression should be the modification of their beliefs about the legitimacy of aggressive actions.     

Preschoolers' Beliefs About the Stability of Antisocial Behavior: Implications for Navigating Social Challenges

The relation between 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children's beliefs about sociomoral stability (the tendency for antisocial behavior to remain stable over time) and their reasoning about peer interactions was examined. Participants were 100 preschoolers enrolled in a Head Start program. Children who endorsed sociomoral stability beliefs were less likely than their peers to make prosocial inferences, were rated by their teachers as less likely to engage in prosocial behavior, and were more likely to endorse the use of aggression to solve conflict with peers. These findings suggest that as early as preschool, children have general patterns of beliefs about the stability of antisocial behavior that predict a tendency to de‐emphasize prosocial strategies that can mediate social challenges.     

Group Influences on Individual Aggression and Prosociality: Early Adolescents Who Change Peer Affiliations

The present study addresses the influence that group norms exert on individual aggressive and prosocial behavior. The study hypothesis is that for early adolescents who change their peer group affiliations, the characteristics of the group they are leaving (departing‐group influence) are not as influential as those of the group that they are joining (attracting‐group influence). From a larger sample of fifth and sixth graders who were followed over a one‐year period, 198 early adolescents were identified as those who changed peer group affiliations. Peer nominations on aggression, prosociality, social preference and popularity, and social network information were collected. Results confirmed that there were significant attracting‐ but not departing‐group influences on aggression and prosociality. Expected associations between aggression, prosocial behavior, and social status were confirmed. The discussion is framed around a social‐ecological perspective that emphasizes the short‐term adaptive nature of aggressive behavior in some peer groups and the need for considering social mobility when assessing group influence on individual behavior.     

Age Differences in the Correlates of Perceived Dominance*

Previous evidence indicates that the correlates of dominance vary over studies. We hypothesized that one source of this variability is that dominance shifts with age from being associated with aggression to being more associated with prosocial behavior and sociometric status. To test this, we examined 10 vs. 13 year-old boys' perceptions of dominance, using a measure that assessed the perceived outcomes of dyadic agonism. In a sample consisting predominantly of lower- and middle-SES boys from public schools attending a racially integrated summer program for youths with behavior problems, we examined the relation between perceived dominance, sociometric status, and measures of social behavior, including physical and verbal aggression. Perceived dominance was associated with hitting and bullying among 10 year-olds, whereas among 13 year-olds it was more closely associated with sociometric status. The measure of perceived dominance we present produced rigidity scores comparable to those found using behavioral measures of dominance.     

The Cognitive Basis of Future-oriented Prosocial Behavior

Two experiments examined the development of future-oriented prosocial behavior in relation to developing theory of mind and executive functioning. Children from 3;0 to 4;6 were given a series of trials in which they had to make a choice between immediate and delayed sticker rewards, where these rewards accrued either to self, to a play partner, or were shared. They also were presented with standard theory of mind tasks (in Experiment 1) assessing the understanding of belief and desire and an executive function task (in Experiment 2) in which the children had to inhibit pointing to a baited box in order to win the cookie within. Results showed that for 4-year-olds, the tendency to opt for delayed rewards in order to share with the partner was correlated with theory of mind. For younger 3-year-olds, the children's ability to inhibit pointing to the baited box was significantly correlated with the tendency to choose delayed over immediate sticker rewards. These results indicate that children's ability to show future-oriented prosocial or sharing behavior is linked developmentally both to the ability to imagine conflicting noncurrent mental states and the ability to inhibit responding to perceptually salient events.     

From Narcissistic Exploitativeness to Bullying Behavior: The Mediating Role of Approval‐of‐aggression Beliefs

This study examined the role of approval‐of‐aggression beliefs in the relationship between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior in an Asian sample (N = 809) comprising elementary children and middle school adolescents. Narcissistic exploitativeness was significantly and positively associated with both bullying behavior and approval‐of‐aggression beliefs, and approval‐of‐aggression beliefs was significantly and positively associated with bullying behavior. Additionally, findings indicated that approval‐of‐aggression beliefs was a statistically significant mediator and 53 percent of the total effect of narcissistic exploitativeness on bullying behavior was mediated by approval‐of‐aggression beliefs. Approval‐of‐aggression beliefs did not moderate the association between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior. There are important theoretical implications as well as implications for prevention and intervention efforts targeting aggressive, bullying behavior among children and adolescents.     

Identity Styles and Interpersonal Behavior in Emerging Adulthood: The Intervening Role of Empathy

This study examined the intervening role of empathy in the relations between identity styles (i.e., information‐oriented, normative, and diffuse‐avoidant styles), and inter‐personal behaviors (i.e., prosocial behavior, self‐ and other‐oriented helping, and physical and relational aggression). In a sample of 341 emerging adults, it was found that an information‐oriented style relates to a more adaptive pattern of interpersonal behaviors whereas a normative or a diffuse‐avoidant identity style relate to a more maladaptive pattern of interpersonal behaviors. Empathy played an intervening role between the information‐oriented style and interpersonal behavior, and between the diffuse‐avoidant style and interpersonal behavior. However, empathy did not intervene between the normative style and interpersonal behavior. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Top Ten Challenges for Understanding Gender and Aggression in Children: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

This essay identifies ten significant methodological challenges for understanding aggression and gender. In light of the recent explosion of research on indirect/relational/social aggression, it seems important to clarify gaps in our current understanding and to identify promising methods by which better answers might be found. The discussion begins with basic issues of definitions, contexts and subtypes, moves on to points concerning sampling and measures, and addresses whether current evidence warrants deciding that girls are as aggressive as boys. We conclude that although research has shown that the majority of girls' aggression takes indirect/relational/social forms, it is premature to conclude that boys do not also engage in these behaviors. We caution against assuming that physical and indirect/relational/social aggression are comparable in their developmental origins and consequences, and urge researchers to consider that fully understanding indirect/relational/social aggression might require different conceptual frameworks and research methods.     

Predicting Sympathy and Prosocial Behavior From Young Children's Dispositional Sadness

The purpose of this study was to examine whether dispositional sadness predicted children's prosocial behavior and if sympathy mediated this relation. Constructs were measured when children (n = 256 at time 1) were 18, 30, and 42 months old. Mothers and non‐parental caregivers rated children's sadness; mothers, caregivers, and fathers rated children's prosocial behavior; sympathy (concern and hypothesis testing) and prosocial behavior (indirect and direct, as well as verbal at older ages) were assessed with a task in which the experimenter feigned injury. In a panel path analysis, 30‐month dispositional sadness predicted marginally higher 42‐month sympathy; in addition, 30‐month sympathy predicted 42‐month sadness. Moreover, when controlling for prior levels of prosocial behavior, 30‐month sympathy significantly predicted reported and observed prosocial behavior at 42 months. Sympathy did not mediate the relation between sadness and prosocial behavior (either reported or observed).     

Examining the Heterotypic Continuity of Aggression Using Teacher Reports: Results from a National Canadian Study

This study examined the heterotypic continuity of aggression hypothesis (physical to indirect) using independent teacher reports of aggression drawn from a nationally representative sample of 749 Canadian girls and boys. Confirmatory factor analysis using an accelerated longitudinal design confirmed a two-factor model of physical and indirect aggression that was stable across time, but not sex. Mean levels of indirect aggression were highest for girls whereas mean levels of physical aggression were highest for boys. Results of a series of path analyses indicated statistically significant cross-lagged effects that varied by sex. Physical aggression at Time 1 (T1; aged six to nine years) significantly predicted increased levels of indirect aggression at Time 2 (T2; girls only) and Time 3 (T3; boys and girls). Indirect aggression at T1 predicted decreased physical aggression at T2 (boys only) and at T3 (boys and girls). These results offer support for the heterotypic continuity of aggression and underscore the usefulness of teacher reports in studies of childhood aggression.     

Can Both Low and High Self‐esteem Be Related to Aggression in Children?

This study examined the opposing hypotheses that either low or exaggerated but disputed self-esteem is related to aggression in 652 12-year-old schoolchildren. Children provided peer nominations of social acceptance and of physical aggression, self-ratings of global self-worth and of social satisfaction. Teachers rated aggressive behavior and internalizing problems. Exaggerated but disputed self-esteem was conceptualized as discrepancies between self and peer evaluations of social satisfaction and of social acceptance, respectively, in combination with peer rejection. The main results showed that both low levels of global self-worth and exaggerated but disputed self-esteem were related to aggression. The findings indicated that, depending on how self-esteem is conceptualized, aggressive children may appear to have both a low and a high self-esteem. Regarding gender differences, exaggerated self-esteem was more strongly related to aggression in boys than in girls.