Exploring the profiles of aggressive behavior among college students: A person-centered approach

In contrast to the traditional 'variable-centered' approach, this study used a 'person-centered' approach to reveal the distinct profiles of aggressive behavior among 851 Chinese college students, and tested how these profiles were related to two potential protective factors (emotional intelligence and self-esteem) and one outcome (friendship quality). Our results showed five different profiles (labeled as low, hostile, indirect, moderate, and high aggression groups) that exhibited different characteristics of aggressive behavior and differential associations with the protective and outcome variables. Three groups (the low, hostile, and indirect aggression groups) had higher levels of emotional intelligence and friendship quality than the other two groups (the moderate and high aggression groups). In terms of self-esteem, the low aggression group showed higher self-esteem than did the hostile, indirect, and moderate aggression groups, who in turn showed higher self-esteem than did the high aggression group. The study suggests that using the 'person-centered' approach may considerably deepen our understanding of aggressive behavior among college students and its relationship with other variables.
Author(s): Baojuan Ye [sup.1] , Tingting Ma [sup.1] , Chuansheng Chen [sup.2] , Mingfan Liu [sup.1] , Xinqiang Wang [sup.1] , Qiang Yang [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411862.8, 0000 0000 [...]