Risk factors associated with proactive and reactive aggression in a child psychiatric inpatient sample

Paula J. Fite, Jon Poquiz, John L. Cooley, Laura Stoppelbein, Stephen P. Becker, Aaron M. Luebbe, Leilani Greening

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Proactive and reactive aggression represent distinct functions of aggression that are associated with different risk factors, including individual and contextual characteristics. However, more research evaluating the interactive effects of risk factors is needed. The current study evaluated whether corporal punishment moderated the influence of neighborhood problems and anger coping on proactive and reactive aggression in a child psychiatric inpatient sample of 6 to 13 year olds (n = 151). Findings were compared across child- and caregiver-reports of aggression. Consistent with expectations, anger coping was more strongly associated with reactive aggression than proactive aggression across informants. In contrast, perceived neighborhood problems were only associated with child-reports of proactive aggression, with corporal punishment moderating this association. Specifically, the association between neighborhood problems and proactive aggression was only evident at high levels of corporal punishment. Treatment implications and future directions are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)56-65
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment
Volume38
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015.

Keywords

  • Anger control
  • Corporal punishment
  • Neighborhood problems
  • Proactive/reactive aggression

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