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Love withdrawal is a form of interpersonal manipulation that shares many features with relational aggression; its use by children has not been examined. Guided by social learning theory, we sought to investigate the prevalence of toddlers' use of love withdrawal toward caregivers (parents and teachers) and further investigate how this behavior was associated with relational and physical aggression and parents' use of love withdrawal. These aims were examined using parent and teacher reports in a sample of 198 toddlers (Mage = 33.62 months; SD = 5.00 months; 50.5% girls). We found that most toddlers used love withdrawal directed at parents (79.2%) and teachers (72.1%) when angry and displayed this type of behavior more than relational and physical aggression. Accounting for household income, hours per week in childcare, and child age in months, as well as classroom clustering, we found that relational aggression, and not physical aggression, predicted the use of love withdrawal by toddlers (teacher reports), and that the associations were stronger for love withdrawal and relational aggression than for physical aggression. We also found that parents' use of love withdrawal toward their child was correlated with their reports of their child's use of love withdrawal, but not with their child's use of aggression. These results highlight the importance of considering the use of love withdrawal by children given its association with aggression which is linked to poorer psychosocial functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the temporal precedence between perceived peer rejection, rejection sensitivity, depression, and aggression in a sample of 544 adolescents (55.7% girls; Mage = 14.96 years at the first measured time point) assessed yearly from Grade 9 to Grade 12. Using developmental cascade modelling to analyze the data, our study supported the symptoms-driven and social process models, in that perceived rejection was preceded by either depression or aggression at different times across adolescence. Similarly, rejection sensitivity was also preceded by depression and/or aggression. Although depression initiated the cascade leading to rejection sensitivity, our model also supported a bidirectional relation across late adolescence as rejection sensitivity also predicted future depression. Overall, our findings provide support that internalizing and externalizing problems lead to interpersonal difficulties with peers, such as perceived rejection and demonstrate the unique role of rejection sensitivity with regard to depression and aggression independent from perceived peer rejection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental cascade models linking childhood physical and relational aggression with symptoms of depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; assessed at ages 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14) to borderline personality disorder (BPD) features (assessed at age 14) were examined in a community sample of 484 youth. Results indicated that, when controlling for within-time covariance and across-time stability in the examination of cross-lagged relations among study variables, BPD features at age 14 were predicted by childhood relational aggression and symptoms of depression for boys, and physical and relational aggression, symptoms of depression, and symptoms of ADHD for girls. Moreover, for boys BPD features were predicted from age 10 ADHD through age 12 depression, whereas for girls the pathway to elevated BPD features at age 14 was from depression at age 10 through physical aggression symptoms at age 12. Controlling for earlier associations among variables, we found that for girls the strongest predictor of BPD features at age 14 was physical aggression, whereas for boys all the risk indicators shared a similar predictive impact. This study adds to the growing literature showing that physical and relational aggression ought to be considered when examining early precursors of BPD features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]