Reactive and Proactive Aggression: Attachment and Social Competence Predictors

In this study, 107 boys and girls aged 3 to 8 years were rated by their mothers on 6 factors: Reactive and Proactive Aggression, Secure and Insecure Attachment, and Prosocial Orientation and Social Initiative (i.e., social competence). Both secure attachment and prosocial orientation predicted proactive and reactive aggression, but prosocial orientation mediated the attachment–aggression relation in the case of reactive but not proactive aggression.     

Freedom and Rationality as Predictors of Cross-National Happiness Patterns: The Role of Income as a Mediating Variable

Freedom and rationality have traditionally been viewed as essential ingredients to the 'pursuit of happiness'. Previous research has found that the way in which happiness is linked to freedom and other attributes of individualistic society is affected by the income level. This paper formulates a structural model of the linkage between political freedom, rationality, and happiness which takes explicit account of income as a mediating variable. Since income is hypothesized to be linked to the degree of freedom and rationality prevailing in a society, this approach permits to distinguish between direct and indirect linkages of happiness to freedom and rationality. Estimating the model with cross-national data yields the following key findings: (1) Happiness is positively related to freedom as well as to rationality at high freedom/rationality levels and negatively at low levels. (2) Whereas freedom affects happiness only indirectly (through its impact on income), rationality has both direct and indirect effects on happiness.     

Attachment and Autism: Parental Attachment Representations and Relational Behaviors in the Parent-Child Dyad

While attachment research has demonstrated that parents’ internal working models of attachment relationships tend to be transmitted to their children, affecting children’s developmental trajectories, this study specifically examines associations between adult attachment status and observable parent, child, and dyadic behaviors among children with autism and associated neurodevelopmental disorders of relating and communicating. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was employed to derive parental working models of attachment relationships. The Functional Emotional Assessment Scale (FEAS) was used to determine the quality of relational and functional behaviors in parents and their children. The sample included parents and their 4- to 16-year-old children with autism and associated neurodevelopmental disorders. Hypothesized relationships between AAI classifications and FEAS scores were supported. Significant correlations were found between AAI classification and FEAS scores, indicating that children with autism spectrum disorders whose parents demonstrated secure attachment representations were better able to initiate and respond in two-way pre-symbolic gestural communication; organize two-way social problem-solving communication; and engage in imaginative thinking, symbolic play, and verbal communication. These findings lend support to the relevance of the parent’s state of mind pertaining to attachment status to child and parent relational behavior in cases wherein the child has been diagnosed with autism or an associated neurodevelopmental disorder of relating and communicating. A model emerges from these findings of conceptualizing relationships between parental internal models of attachment relationships and parent-child relational and functional levels that may aid in differentiating interventions.     

Attachment and Relational Psychoanalysis: Bowlby According to Mitchell

In our contribution we would like to highlight that the model formulated by Mitchell in his last book entitled Relationality seems to suggest that he had come to realize that he could not exclude attachment theory entirely from his theoretical framework. Some of the most interesting interpretations of it—post-Bowlbian interpretations—regarded the dynamics of early attachment as a fundamental model of emotional regulation. We think that in Italy there has always been a significantly widespread sensitivity toward developmental and attachment themes also in more strictly psychoanalytic contexts, hence the specific slant of our reading of the most recent developments in relational psychoanalysis.     

Relational and Social Aggression and Reflective Processing in a University Sample

This study examined whether the dimension of reflective processing (e.g., deep and elaborative processing) was connected to the use of relational aggressions, social aggression, or both. A convenience sample of 629 college students (66% female, 91.6% White) was surveyed to ascertain the relation between self-reported relational and social aggression and deep and elaborative processing. The overall multivariate regression model was significant, Wilks’s λ = .12, F(4, 2162) = 1010.80, p < .001. Univariate results were used to show that the two predictors (relational and social aggression) significantly and strongly positively predicted the use of deep processing, R² = .81, p < .001, as well as the use of elaborative processing, R² = .87, p < .001. In summary, higher levels of social and relational aggression were related to higher levels of deep and elaborative processing. Implications for these findings are presented.     

Aggression and Heat: The Mediating Role of Negative Affect1

Sixty-four undergraduate males received either very postive or very negative personal evaluations from an attitudinally similar or dissimilar stranger, and were then given an opportunity to aggress against this person by means of electric shock. Half were exposed to these stimuli under comfortably cool environmental conditions, while half were so treated under uncomfortably hot conditions. It was predicted that aggression toward the victim would increase as the degree of negative affect induced among subjects by the experimental conditions increased up to moderate levels, but that beyond this point, further increments in negative affect would actually tend to inhibit such behavior. A significant (p < .007) curvilinear relationship between negative affect and aggression supported these predictions, and suggested that such affect mediates the influence of high ambient temperatures on human aggression.     

大学生依恋焦虑与抑郁的关系:恋爱中关系攻击和关系质量的序列中介作用

浪漫关系中的关系攻击指通过操纵或损害关系以达到伤害浪漫关系伴侣的行为。本文以628名处于恋爱关系中的大学生为被试,探讨了依恋焦虑与抑郁之间的关系,并考察了恋爱中的关系攻击和恋爱关系质量在其中的序列中介作用。结果表明:(1)大学生依恋焦虑对抑郁有显著的正向预测作用;(2)关系攻击和关系质量在大学生依恋焦虑与抑郁之间分别发挥着单独中介作用;(3)关系攻击和关系质量在大学生依恋焦虑与抑郁之间发挥着序列中介作用。研究结果验证了依恋焦虑个体在关系中的“自我实现预言”模型,同时能够为大学生心理健康教育提供实践指导。     

Testing a Bifactor Model of Relational and Physical Aggression in Early Childhood

Different approaches have been used to classify children as relationally aggressive, physically aggressive, or both relationally and physically aggressive (co-occurring aggression). The goal of the current study (N = 164, 50.9% boys, M _age = 47.75 months, SD = 7.37) was to test a bifactor model of aggression, which allows for aggression to be assessed dimensionally, and postulates a co-occurring aggression factor as well as unique relational and physical aggression factors, during early childhood. Aggression was measured using reliable observer and teacher reports of physical and relational aggression subscales. The two-factor model was an adequate fit to the data but the bifactor model was a significant improvement in model fit compared to the two-factor model. Alternative statistics for evaluating bifactor models were used in the current study. The measurement invariance (e.g., configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance) of the bifactor model was tested across gender and results from the bifactor model using teacher report showed that the model was invariant across gender. Lastly, the criterion validity of the model was examined by evaluating the relations between the bifactor model and observations of physical and relational aggression and results generally supported the validity of the bifactor model. Overall, results suggest that a bifactor model of aggression may be a useful method for studying aggression in early childhood.     

Adult Attachment and Dyadic Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Shame

Although it is widely recognized that adult attachment is associated with romantic relationship quality, the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of external and internal shame on the association between attachment and dyadic adjustment. A battery of self-report measures was completed by 228 Portuguese participants and a serial multiple mediation model was tested. Data showed that, in the population under study, attachment dimensions were associated with worse dyadic adjustment through high external and internal shame. Internal shame alone also mediated the association between attachment avoidance and dyadic adjustment. This study identifies a new putative mechanism linking adult attachment and intimate relationship functioning that may be targeted in couples therapy to promote a better dyadic adjustment and relationship functioning.     

Attachment Styles and Employee Performance: The Mediating Role of Burnout

Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in how early experiences within the family are relevant to an individual’s behavior at work. Drawing on Bowlby’s attachment theory, the present study addresses this topic by examining the relationship between attachment in adulthood and job performance, and the mediating role of burnout in that relationship. We used data from two samples (201 Dutch employees and 178 Romanian working students) and structural equation modeling to test this mediation model and its possible invariance across both samples. The results showed that in both samples, attachment-related anxiety was positively related to burnout, which was in turn negatively related to job performance. Attachment-related avoidance was not significantly associated with burnout or performance. These results were similar in both samples, thus increasing their validity. The results suggest that childhood and early socialization experiences play a role in shaping the employee’s behavior and well-being at work. The study is one of the few examining attachment styles in relation to burnout and performance.     

Religious Involvement and Depression: The Mediating Effect of Relational Spirituality

Journal of Religion and Health - Multiple studies have examined the relationship between religious involvement and depression. Many of these investigations reveal a negative correlation between...     

Measuring Relational Aggression in Middle Childhood in a Multi-Informant Multi-Method Study

Relational aggression includes behaviors intended to damage the social status and relationships of others. Recent work has demonstrated problematic outcomes for both aggressors and victims. These behaviors have been associated with psychopathology, including early borderline personality pathology. Despite the importance in better understanding these behaviors, numerous questions remain regarding the validity of different informants and methods for assessing relational aggression. In a community-based sample of 330 families evenly split by child gender (50.3% female), relational aggression data was assessed via multiple informants (mother, father, and self) and multiple methods (questionnaire and interview). The results suggest that mothers and fathers show higher agreement for girls’ relational aggression than for boys’ and that the presence of gender differences depends on the method of measurement. In addition, both mothers and fathers reports of relational aggression uniquely predicted internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social problems, with fathers’ reports emerging as a particularly robust predictor. Relational aggression scores accounted for a greater amount of predicted variance in externalizing behaviors than in the other two domains. Results are discussed in the context of the utility of multiple informants and the conceptualization of relational aggression in a broader externalizing psychopathology framework.     

Pubertal Timing and Youth Internalizing Psychopathology: The Role of Relational Aggression

The current study examined relational aggression as a potential mechanism that explains the association between off-time pubertal development and internalizing problems in youth. Youth gender was also examined as a moderator for the association between these variables. It was hypothesized that early pubertal maturation would be associated with higher levels of relationally aggressive behavior which, in turn, would be associated with elevated levels of internalizing problems. Parents of 372 children between the ages of 8 and 17 were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Parents responded to demographic information about themselves, as well as information about their child’s pubertal timing, relationally aggressive behavior, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings indicated that early pubertal timing was associated with higher levels of anxiety directly, and higher levels of both anxiety and depressive symptoms indirectly through higher levels of relational aggression. In all but one of the pathways examined, gender was not found to moderate the associations between the study variables of interest. This study is the first to examine relational aggression as a mechanism by which early pubertal timing leads to internalizing problems. The findings suggest that relational aggression could be a target for intervention among early developing youth who are at risk for internalizing problems.     

Relational Aggression and Hostile Attribution Biases: Testing Multiple Statistical Methods and Models

The present study used both categorical and dimensional approaches to test the association between relational and physical aggression and hostile intent attributions for both relational and instrumental provocation situations using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (M = 8.3 years-old, SD = 0.19, N = 840). A one standard deviation threshold was used to create categorical aggression status groups. In categorical analyses, children who were both relationally and physically aggressive were found to attribute more hostile intent attributions in relationally provocative situations. Results from the dimensional analyses indicated that female gender, physical aggression, and hostile attribution biases for instrumental provocations each predicted increases in relational aggression over time. Further, relational aggression was not predictive of hostile attribution biases for relational provocations, and instead physical aggression was predictive. Implications for the fields of developmental psychology and psychopathology are discussed.     

核心家庭父亲协同教养对青少年抑郁的影响:父子依恋和母子依恋的中介作用

基于家庭系统理论,采用父亲协同教养、父子依恋、母子依恋和抑郁量表,对河南省某中学初中一、二年级,高中一、二年级共计890名来自核心家庭的青少年进行调查,探索父亲协同教养各维度（团结、一致、冲突、贬低）与青少年抑郁之间的关系,以及父子依恋和母子依恋在二者关系中的中介作用。结果表明：（1）在控制其它维度作用的情况下,父亲协同教养中的团结和冲突对青少年抑郁具有显著的预测作用,一致和贬低对抑郁的预测作用不显著,表明团结、冲突对青少年抑郁具有显著的“独特效应”;（2）团结、一致、冲突、贬低性协同教养均对母子依恋具有显著影响,支持家庭系统中的“交叉效应”;团结、冲突对父子依恋具有显著影响,支持家庭系统中的“外溢效应”;（3）中介效应分析的结果表明,团结、一致、冲突对抑郁的直接效应不显著,母子依恋在团结与青少年抑郁、冲突与青少年抑郁的关系中起到完全中介作用,但父子依恋的中介作用不显著。本研究有助于增进对父亲协同教养的认知,对于指导家庭教育实践、促进青少年心理积极发展具有重要的意义。     

Overt and Relational Aggression and Victimization: Multiple Perspectives within the School Setting

The current study involved a comprehensive comparative examination of overt and relational aggression and victimization across multiple perspectives in the school setting (peers, teachers, observers in the lunchroom, self-report). Patterns of results involving sociometic status, ethnicity and gender were explored among 4th graders, with particular emphasis on girls. Controversial and rejected children were perceived as higher on both forms of aggression than other status groups, but only rejected children were reported as victims. Both European American and African American girls showed a greater tendency toward relational aggression and victimization than overt aggression or victimization. Results indicated negative outcomes associated with both relational and overt victimization and especially overt aggression for the target girl sample. Poorer adjustment and a socially unskillful behavioral profile were found to be associated with these three behaviors. However, relational aggression did not evidence a similar negative relation to adjustment nor was it related to many of the behaviors examined in the current study. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Taking the Sting Out: Manifesting Aggression and Containing Difficult States in a Relational Group Psychotherapy

This paper describes ways of handling aggression and difficulty in containing intense emotional experiences in group psychotherapy. The clinical vignette illustrates how, in cases of overprotectiveness, an external trigger may sometime serve as a vehicle of liberation and ventilation. The therapist’s enactment in response to the sudden penetration of a wasp into the room is discussed by relating to the functions it serves in the process of encountering aggression, as well as the group and therapist’s capacity to move from “twoness” to a “co-created third.” Whereas aggression, in general, is difficult to deal with, in a group it might prove to be extremely threatening, posing dangers unique to groups. Moreover, openly discussing the group conductor’s aggressiveness is especially challenging in a group. The paper illustrates the fruitful intersection of group analytic thinking and relational psychoanalytic conceptualization.     

Parenting Styles and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents: Mediating Effect of Attachment

The present study aims to analyze the role of parenting styles in the development of suicidal ideation in adolescents, as well as test the mediating role of attachment to parents in the association between authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting style and suicidal ideation. The sample was made up of 604 individuals, aged between 15 and 18. In order to gather data, the Styles & Dimensions Questionnaire: Short Version, the Father/Mother Attachment Questionnaire and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire were used. The results suggest that the relations with parents, which are characterized by inhibition of exploration and of individuality, contribute to an emotional maladjustment being positively associated with suicidal ideation (r?=?.26 to r?=?.28). This confirmed the mediating role of parental attachment in the association between authoritative and permissive parenting styles from father and mother to suicidal ideation. It was also verified also a partial mediation, through the attachment to parents, in the association between the parent’s authoritarian style and the mother’s permissive styles and suicidal ideation. Furthermore, it was found the presence of total mediation, by throughout to attachment to the father, in the association between the father’s permissive style and suicidal ideation. The results suggest the importance of adopting authoritative parenting styles, since they seem to facilitate the development of the quality of attachment with parents. The results were analyzed in light of the attachment theory, taking into consideration the importance of parenting styles in understanding the processes inherent to suicidal ideation in adolescence.