Functions of Aggression and Disciplinary Actions Among Elementary School-Age Youth

Bidirectional associations between affective empathy and proactive and reactive aggression

“…Three items on the scale assess proactive aggression (e.g., “Gets other kids to gang up on somebody that he/she does not like”) and three assess reactive aggression (e.g., “When teased or threatened, gets angry easily and strikes back”). The measure has previously demonstrated good psychometric properties (Dodge & Coie, 1987; Fite, Evans, Pederson, & Tampke, 2017). Internal consistencies for both functions were acceptable at both time points ( α = .78 and .85 and α = .93 and .95, respectively).…”

Links between proactive and reactive aggression and disciplinary actions among middle school‐age youth

“…However, reactive aggression was positively associated with disciplinary actions cross‐sectionally. By contrast, in an elementary school setting, reactive aggression was most strongly related to school disciplinary actions when controlling for peer relationships, GPA, and proactive aggression (Fite et al, 2017). It is worth noting that there was a trend for proactive aggression to be negatively associated with disciplinary actions.…”

“…It is worth noting that there was a trend for proactive aggression to be negatively associated with disciplinary actions. It was posited that reactive aggression may be associated with relatively minor misbehaviors that are more of an issue at school than in after‐school care, while proactive aggression is associated with more severe problem behaviors that may be most prominent in after‐school care compared to while in school (Fite et al, 2017). Supporting this notion, Waschbusch and Willoughby (1998) found that reactive, not proactive, aggression was associated with classroom rule violations.…”

“…Based on prior research with elementary school‐age youth (Fite et al, 2017), it was hypothesized that reactive aggression would be more robustly linked to disciplinary actions than proactive aggression. Additionally, school attachment was hypothesized to moderate these effects, such that both proactive and reactive aggression would be associated with fewer disciplinary actions at high levels of school attachment compared to low levels of school attachment.…”

“…Aggression is strongly linked to problem behaviors at school (e.g., McConville & Cornell, 2003; Valois & McKewon, 1998). However, more research evaluating links between proactive (goal‐oriented) and reactive (impulsive and retaliatory) functions of aggression and disciplinary actions at school is needed, with only one study to date examining these specific associations in elementary school (Fite et al, 2017). Moreover, it is not clear how other factors, particularly school‐related perceptions such as school attachment, may impact the links between these functions of aggression and disciplinary actions at school.…”