Predicting Reactive and Proactive Relational Aggression in Early Adolescence as a Function of ...

165 Pages·2013·1.03 MB·English

Predicting Reactive and Proactive Relational Aggression in Early Adolescence as a
Function of Individual Differences in Machiavellianism, Empathy, and Emotion
Regulation

Tiffany Pursoo

Thesis submitted to the
Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in Clinical Psychology

Faculty of Social Sciences
School of Psychology
University of Ottawa

© Tiffany Pursoo, Ottawa, Canada, 2013
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression ii
Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been possible without the support of my supervisor, Dr.
Jane Ledingham. Her sincere and unceasing guidance, patience, insight, knowledge and
light-hearted humour were essential in this adventure. Thank you for your cheerful
encouragement every step of the way.
I also wish to express my gratitude to my thesis committee: Dr. Pierre Gosselin, Dr.
Barry Schneider, Dr. Alastair Younger, and my external examiner Dr. Karl Hennig. Your
expertise and feedback have guided me from my early education in psychology to the
eagerly anticipated day that I defend my dissertation.
I am indebted to the students, staff and caregivers of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic
District School Board in Brampton, Ontario. Thank you for opening your doors and minds to
this research.
My immeasurable appreciation goes out to my family and my friends and their
unconditional love and confidence throughout my graduate school experience. It has truly
been a shared journey, and I’ve enjoyed celebrating each and every achievement with you.
Finally, a special thank you goes to my remarkable fiancé Ron, who is encouraging,
understanding and kind in a way I could have only imagined. Thank you for your faith in my
abilities, especially when mine started to waver. I am so lucky to have you by my side.
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression iii
Abstract
Relational aggression encompasses behaviour meant to hurt others by destroying their
friendships and reputation (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). As peer relationships take on greater
importance in early adolescence, relational aggression becomes more accepted and prevalent,
yet perceived as equally or more harmful to its targets than physical aggression. The present
study explored whether reactive and proactive subtypes of relational aggression were
associated with an inability to empathize with others, regulate emotional states, and hold
attitudes that it is acceptable to manipulate and harm others. Empathy, emotion regulation,
and Machiavellianism’s roles in predicting reactive and proactive relational aggression was
examined using Crick and Dodge’s (1994) reformulated Social Information-Processing
Theory’s framework. Reactive relational aggression was expected to be associated with low
empathy and high emotion dysreglation. Proactive relational aggression was expected to be
predicted by high empathy, low emotion dysregulation, and high Machiavellianism. Low
empathy was expected to predict overt aggression indices. One hundred and thirty-three
children (73 females, 60 males, M = 12.84 years) in grades 6 through 8 from five schools
age
in a public Ontario schoolboard were recruited. Caregivers completed a measure of their
child’s emotions and behaviours (The Emotion Regulation Checklist; Shields & Cicchetti,
1995). Participating students completed four self-report measures assessing relational and
overt aggression (Children’s Social Behaviour Scale – Self-Report; Crick & Grotpeter,
1995), proactive and reactive subtypes of aggression (Little, Jones, Henrich, & Hawley,
2003), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index; Davis, 1980), and Machiavellianism (Kiddie
Mach Scale; Christie & Geis, 1970) during one 60 minute session. Empathy,
Machiavellianism, and emotion dysregulation scores were associated with total, reactive, and
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression iv
proactive relational aggression scores. When contrasting subtypes of aggression were
controlled, however, these emotional and cognitive variables did not predict total and
reactive relational aggression. There was a non-significant trend for higher levels of empathy
to predict proactive relational aggression. Low empathy significantly predicted total and
reactive overt aggression indices. Machiavellianism predicted reactive and proactive overt
aggression. Emotion regulation was not a significant predictor in analyses. Results provide
support for the role of Machiavellianism and empathy in relational aggression, particularly
proactive or goal-oriented instances.
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression v
Table of Contents
An Introduction to Aggression 1
Negative Consequences of Aggressive Behaviour 2
Individual Differences and Aggression 3
Functions and Forms of Aggression: Examining Classification Subtypes 4
Proactive aggression and reactive aggression 4
Physical aggression and relational aggression 7
The Portrayal of Relational Aggression: More Proactive or Reactive? 10
Negative Consequences of Relational Aggression Across the Lifespan 12
A Frame of Reference: Social Information-Processing Theory 14
Social information-processing skills of relationally aggressive children:
Deficits, differences, or superiority? 16
Machiavellianism 21
Empathy 25
Emotion Regulation 29
Present Study 33
Method 36
Participants 36
Procedure 37
Measures 39
Relational aggression 39
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression vi
Reactive and proactive aggression 42
Machiavellianism 44
Empathy 46
Emotion Regulation 48
Results 51
Preliminary Analyses 51
Descriptive Analyses 53
Gender and Grade Differences 57
Regression Analyses 57
Empathy, Machiavellianism and emotion regulation as predictors of total
relational aggression 58
Empathy, Machiavellianism and emotion regulation as predictors of
reactive relational aggression 60
Empa thy, Machiavellianism and emotion regulation as predictors of
proactive relational aggression 64
Empathy, Machiavellianism and emotion regulation as predictors of overt
aggression variables 68
Planned Conditional Process Modeling 75
Discussion 78
Association of Relational Aggression and Overt Aggression 79
Ef fects of Gender and Grade on Emotional, Cognitive and Aggression
Variables 83
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression vii
Measuring Relational Aggression 84
Reactive relational aggression 85
Proactive relational aggression 85
How distinct are overt and relational aggression? 88
Empathy and Emotional Regulation in Conditional Process Modelling 90
Measuring Emotion Regulation: Possible Limitations 91
Limitations of the Present Study 92
Implications, Interventions and Future Directions 95
References 101
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression viii
List of Tables
Table 1. Psychometric Properties of Study Variables 53
Table 2. Sample Size by Gender and Grade 54
Table 3. Correlations Among Variables (Using Untransformed Scores) 55
Table 4. Correlations Between Empathy Subscales and Aggression 56
Table 5. Standard Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Total Relational
Aggression From Empathy, Emotion Regulation and 58
Machiavellianism
Table 6. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Total Relational
Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Total Overt Aggression 59
Table 7. Standard Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Reactive Relational
Aggression From Empathy, Emotion Regulation and
Machiavellianism 61
Table 8. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Reactive
Relational Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Proactive 61
Relational Aggression
Table 9. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Reactive
Relational Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Reactive Overt 62
Aggression
Table 10. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Reactive
Relational Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Cross-Subtype 63
Aggression
Table 11. Standard Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Proactive Relational
Aggression From Empathy, Emotion Regulation and
Machiavellianism
64
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression ix
Table 12. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Proactive
Relational Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Reactive Relational
Aggression 65
Table 13. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Proactive
Relational Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Proactive Overt
Aggression 66
Table 14. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Proactive
Relational Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Cross-Subtype
Aggression 67
Table 15. Standard Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Total Overt
Aggression From Empathy, Emotion Regulation and
Machiavellianism 69
Table 16. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Total Overt
Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Total Relational Aggression 69
Table 17. Standard Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Reactive Relational
Aggression From Empathy, Emotion Regulation and
Machiavellianism 70
Table 18. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Reactive Overt
Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Cross-Subtype Aggression 71
Table 19. Standard Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Proactive Relational
Aggression From Empathy, Emotion Regulation and
72
Machiavellianism
Table 20. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis Predicting Proactive Overt
Aggression, Controlling for Gender and Cross-Subtype Aggression 73
Table 21. Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Variables
Predicting Total Relational Aggression, Reactive Relational
Individual Differences and Relational Aggression x
Aggression and Proactive Relational Aggression 74
Table 22. Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Variables
Predicting Total Overt Aggression, Reactive Overt Aggression and
Proactive Overt Aggression 75