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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 :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Child Psychology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 169706178
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13804