Aggression Profiles in the Spanish Child Population: Differences in Perfectionism, School Refusal and Affect

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the existence of combinations of aggression components (Anger, Hostility, Physical Aggression and Verbal Aggression) that result in different profiles of aggressive behavior in children, as well as to test the differences between these profiles in scores of perfectionism, school refusal and affect. It is interesting to analyze these variables given: (a) their clinical relevance due to their close relationship with the overall psychopathology; and (b) the need for further evidence regarding how they are associated with aggressive behavior. The sample consisted of 1202 Spanish primary education students between the ages of 8 and 12. Three aggressive behavior profiles for children were identified using Latent Class Analysis (LCA): High Aggression (Z scores between 0.69 and 0.7), Moderate Aggression (Z scores between −0.39 and −0.47) and Low Aggression (Z scores between −1.36 and −1.58). These profiles were found for 49.08%, 38.46% and 12.48% of the sample, respectively. High Aggression scored significantly higher than Moderate Aggression and Low Aggression on Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP), Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP), the first three factors of school refusal (i.e., FI. Negative Affective, FII. Social Aversion and/or Evaluation, FIII. To Pursue Attention), and Negative Affect (NA). In addition, Moderate Aggression also reported significantly higher scores than Low Aggression for the three first factors of school refusal and NA. Conversely, Low Aggression had significantly higher mean scores than High Aggression and Moderate Aggression on Positive Affect (PA). Results demonstrate that High Aggression was the most maladaptive profile having a high risk of psychological vulnerability. Aggression prevention programs should be sure to include strategies to overcome psychological problems that characterize children manifesting high levels of aggressive behavior.

Latent Class Analysis of School Refusal Behavior and Its Relationship With Cyberbullying During Adolescence

“…These results confirm the second hypothesis which anticipates that the adolescents with a high SRB profile would have higher scores in cyberbullying and reinforces the findings of prior studies that found cybervictimized adolescents to be a population at risk of not attending school because they did not feel safe (Steiner and Rasberry, 2015; Grinshteyn and Yang, 2017) and in order to engage in escape and avoidance behavior in an educational context (Barboza, 2015). Furthermore, the results are in line with those from other studies with adolescents that have related the level of absenteeism and school rejection with being an aggressor or perpetrator of cyberbullying (Wright, 2015; Morin et al, 2018), and high aggression levels with higher levels of school rejection in order to avoid negative affectivity and social evaluation and to gain the attention of significant others and similar levels of school rejection to obtain tangible reinforcers (Vicent et al, 2018).…”

Self-criticism, Strivings and Aggressive Behavior in Spanish Children: The Two Sides of Self-Oriented Perfectionism

“…(e.g., Morris & Lomax, 2014). There is a limited, yet growing interest in the understanding of how this personality trait may affect certain externalizing problems, such as aggressive behavior (e.g., García-Fernández, Vicent, Inglés, Gonzálvez, & Sanmartín, 2017;Stoeber, Noland, Mawenu, Henderson, & Kent, 2017;Vicent, Inglés, Sanmartín, Gonzálvez, & García-Fernández, 2018).…”

“…Moreover, to our knowledge, with the exception of the works of Stoeber et al (2017) and Vicent et al (2018), no prior studies have jointly considered the three components of aggressive behavior. That is, previous studies have only focused on hostility and anger.…”

“…Hence, the data available on the link between the motor component of aggressive behavior (i.e., physical and verbal aggression) and SOP is limited to these two works (i.e., Stoeber et al, 2017;Vicent et al, 2018). Specifically, Vicent et al (2018), in a sample of 1,202 Spanish students aged 8-12, found that participants with a profile of high scores on all aggressive behavior dimensions scored significantly higher on SOP than their peers having a moderate or low profile. However, results of this study do not offer knowledge on independent relations between SOP and each dimension of aggressive behavior.…”

School Refusal Behavior and Aggression in Spanish Adolescents

“…Future studies should consider the need to design and offer educational strategies with specific intervention and prevention measures for use by schools and education specialists ( Bucur et al, 2020 ). Preventive interventions could be focused on improving the affective levels of all students, especially the most emotionally vulnerable, which would be positively reflected in the development and happiness of the students due to the relationship found between the school refusal behavior, affectivity, and aggression ( Sanmartín et al, 2018 ; Vicent et al, 2018 ). Designing these proposals, the different reasons for school refusal must be taken into account in order to offer a more adjusted intervention.…”