Internalizing and externalizing symptoms and aggression and violence in men and women

Abstract

Literature linking aggressive behavior across internalizing and externalizing disorders support the co‐occurrence of aggression and various mental health diagnoses. However, research has yet to examine relationships between aggression and dimensional psychopathology models that cut across diagnostic boundaries (e.g., internalizing, externalizing composites) and capture shared liability across common disorders. The role of gender has also been largely ignored in prior work, despite evidence that men and women manifest psychopathology differently. The present study examined cross‐sectional and longitudinal relationships between psychopathology composites (i.e., Internalizing, Externalizing) and different manifestations of physical aggression (i.e., aggressive traits, general violence, physical intimate partner violence, and self‐directed aggression), as well as moderation by gender. Internalizing (INT) and Externalizing (EXT) lifetime symptoms and various physically aggressive behaviors were assessed at baseline and at 6 months and 1 year follow up in a sample of 319 adults with violence and/or substance use histories. Cross‐sectional results showed that INT was associated with all forms of aggression, and women showed stronger relationships between INT and both physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and self‐directed aggression. EXT was specifically linked to general violence, and a stronger relationship between EXT and self‐directed aggression emerged in men compared to women. Longitudinal relationships were mostly small and nonsignificant. Results support the co‐occurrence of aggression with distinct forms of psychopathology, as well as gender‐dependent relationships, but do not support the predictive validity of symptom composites in aggression risk. Findings implicate the need for aggression interventions tailored within gender.

Gender-Based Analysis of the Association Between Mental Health, Sleep Quality, Aggression, and Physical Activity Among University Students During the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…On the other hand, men show higher rates of externalizing disorders, namely, impulse control and substance abuse ( Needham & Hill, 2010 ), and their response to stress primarily involves the fight-or-flight response ( Taylor et al, 2000 ). In our study, male students reported higher aggressiveness, a behavior often associated to externalizing disorders ( Mendez et al, 2021 ). Our study is the first to report aggressiveness in male university students in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Eyes of the beholders: Multi‐method relationships between internalizing and externalizing symptom dimensions and aggression risk

“…This study addresses several important knowledge gaps. In Aim 1, we sought to replicate and extend Mendez et al (2021) by examining (a) unique and interactive effects of internalizing dimension (i.e., depression, anxiety, negative emotionality) and externalizing dimension composites (i.e., antisocial behavior, substance use, disinhibition) in relation to self-directed (i.e., non-suicidal self-injury, suicide ideation, suicide attempts) and other-directed aggression. We used a multi-method approach to assess aggression, using both interviewbased and questionnaire data for self-directed aggression, and questionnaire, interview, and laboratory data to inform indices of other-directed aggression.…”

Sex differences in externalizing and internalizing traits and ventral striatal responses to monetary loss

“…Men relative to women show more prominent externalizing traits (Mendez et al, 2021b). Studies have also reported sex differences in behavioral and neural reactivities to reward and punishment.…”

“…The literature is less consistent with respect to sex differences in internalizing traits. Overall, women appeared to show more internalizing traits than men (Malhotra and Shah, 2015;Mendez et al, 2021a;Padgaonkar et al, 2020) and the patterns of sex differences remained stable across the lifespan (van Loo et al, 2021). On the other hand, another study noted no sex differences in any internalizing measures of the child behavior checklist in typically developing youth (Padgaonkar et al, 2020).…”