Children's hostile intent attributions and emotional distress: What do parents perceive?

Keywords

emotional distress, hostile intent attributions, parent perceptions, physical aggression, relational aggression

Abstract

Traditionally, assessments of social information processing and associated emotional distress have used children's self‐reports. We posit that additional informants, such as parents, may help illuminate the association between these variables and aggression. Our sample was composed of 222 dual‐parent families of fourth‐grade children (103 boys; 119 girls). Children responded to instrumental and relational provocations and their parents read the same scenarios and responded the way they believed their child would. Peer nominations provided aggression scores. We explored how means differed by provocation type (relational vs. instrumental), informant (mother, father, and child), and gender of child. The results also suggest that parent perceptions may effectively predict children's participation in relational and physical aggression, above and beyond the child's self‐reports.

Original Publication Citation

Nelson, D. A., *Cramer, C. M., Coyne, S. M., & Olsen, J. A. (2018). Children’s hostile intent attributions and emotional distress: What do parents perceive? Aggressive Behavior, 44, 98-108.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2017-09-28

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/5156

Publisher

Aggressive Behavior

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Family Life

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

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