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Irritability and rejection‐elicited aggression in adolescents and young adults.
- Source :
-
Journal of Child Psychology . Sep2023, Vol. 64 Issue 9, p1346-1358. 13p. 2 Charts, 5 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Background: Violence exacts staggering personal and financial costs – a burden disproportionally born by adolescents and young adults. This may be partially due to an increased sensitivity to social rejection during this critical phase of development. Irritability, a transdiagnostic symptom, is often elicited by social interactions. Yet, little is known about age differences in social rejection‐elicited aggression and irritability. Progress toward testing such relations has been hindered by a lack of ecologically‐valid tasks that enable the measurement of in‐the‐moment social rejection‐elicited aggression. Methods: In this paper, we describe an initial study of young adults (n = 55) that demonstrates the efficacy of a novel Virtual School and Aggression Paradigm (VS‐AP). Next, we replicate these results in a second study of adolescents and young adults (ages 11–25 years; n = 173) and examine relations between social rejection‐elicited aggression, irritability, and age. Results: We found that aggressive behavior in the VS‐AP differed for accepting, rejecting, and unpredictable peer types (Study 1: F(2, 108) = 20.57, p <.001, ε2 =.28; Study 2: F(2, 344) = 152.13, p <.001, ε2 =.47), demonstrating that the VS‐AP successfully models social rejection‐elicited aggression. In Study 2, age was negatively correlated with aggressive behavior (r = −.29, p <.001) and irritability (r = −.28, p <.001), while irritability was positively correlated with aggressive behavior (r =.28, p <.001). Age moderated the relation between social rejection‐elicited aggression and irritability. Specifically, irritability was more predictive of aggression in young adults than in adolescents (F(3, 167) = 7.07, p <.001). Conclusions: Data suggest mechanisms promoting rejection‐elicited aggression may differ across development and vary for those with and without high levels of irritability. The VS‐AP is a promising tool for probing neurocognitive, developmental, and clinically relevant mechanisms underlying social rejection‐elicited aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *RESEARCH
*AFFECT (Psychology)
*SOCIAL theory
*VIOLENCE
*SOCIAL isolation
*TREATMENT effectiveness
*PARADIGMS (Social sciences)
*COMPARATIVE studies
*DESCRIPTIVE statistics
*TEENAGERS' conduct of life
*INTERPERSONAL relations
*SOCIAL skills
*AGGRESSION (Psychology)
*STATISTICAL correlation
*ADULTS
*ADOLESCENCE
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00219630
- Volume :
- 64
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Child Psychology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 169706178
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13804