Approach‐avoidance tendencies in proactive and reactive aggression
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11107129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bram Van Bockstaele (0000-0002-5860-6449, Research Institute of Child Development and Education University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Aggressive Behavior (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0096-140X • E-ISSN: 1098-2337 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ab.22162 |
| OpenAlex | W4400126450 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 47 |
Aggressive behaviors have been related to approach/avoidance tendencies. In our current study, we investigated whether approach/avoidance tendencies for angry versus fearful emotional expressions were differentially predictive of children's reactive and proactive aggression. A total of 116 children (58 girls, M age = 10.90, standard deviation SD age = 0.98) completed an approach/avoidance task (AAT) and a stimulus‐response compatibility task (SRCT), both measuring the extent to which they tended to approach or avoid angry and fearful facial expressions relative to neutral facial expressions. Children also completed a self‐report scale of reactive and proactive aggression. Although none of the approach/avoidance tendency scores correlated significantly with either of the aggression scores, stronger approach tendencies for angry faces and stronger avoidance tendencies for fearful faces in the AAT predicted more reactive aggression. Similar yet nonsignificant results were found for proactive aggression, but no effects were replicated in the SRCT. Our results thus invite the conclusion that reactive aggression is characterized by a tendency to approach angry faces and a tendency to avoid fearful faces. However, the poor discrimination between both types of aggression as well as the lack of convergence between the results of our two measures of approach/avoidance tendencies indicates that further research is needed to establish the role of approach/avoidance tendencies for emotional faces as markers for childhood aggression
Aggression · Avoidance behaviour · Developmental psychology · Injury prevention · Medical emergency · Poison control · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Medicine · Psychology
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| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |