Shaping aggressive personality in adolescence: Exploring cross-lagged relations between aggressive thoughts, aggressive behaviour and self-control

Abstract

Aggressive ideations can be defined as thoughts, daydreams or fantasies of harming another. They feature in theoretical models of aggressive behaviour causation and are used in violence risk assessments. Little is known, however, about long term relations between aggressive ideations, aggressive behaviour and related variables such as self-control. We examined cross-lagged associations between these variables in the most recent two waves of the Zurich project on social development (z-proso) when the participants were aged 15 and 17. We found that aggressive ideations were highly stable across this time span. The only significant cross-lagged effects were between aggressive behaviour at age 15 and self-control and aggressive ideations at age 17. Results are consistent with the strength model of self-control in which changes in specific self-controlled behaviour can produce generalised changes in self-control. They are also consistent with the hypothesis that aggressive ideations are more a reaction to or a reflection of shared causes with, rather than a cause of, aggressive behaviour. Future studies should aim to integrate measurements across short and long time scales in order to further understand the causal interactions between aggressive ideations and behaviours as they play out across at the state and trait level.

Situating violent ideations within the landscape of mental health: Associations between violent ideations and dimensions of mental health

“…Past research has suggested that the tendency to report violent ideations is quite stable over adolescence (e.g. Murray et al, 2016e); however, whether this stability and the pattern of relations between violent ideations and mental health dimensions are maintained into adulthood is not yet clear. Finally, the fact that violent ideations and mental health dimensions were measured with different albeit identically formatted and administered inventories, could have reduced their covariance with other mental health dimensions relative to the covariance among mental health dimensions.…”

Effortful control, exposure to community violence, and aggressive behavior: Exploring cross‐lagged relations in adolescence

“…Previous empirical research examining the possibility that the association between self-regulation and aggressive behavior is bidirectional in adolescence comes from the criminology domain (de Kemp et al, 2009;Murray et al, 2016). As suggested by Ge and Conger (1999), the reciprocal relation between self-control and aggressive behavior might reflect a dynamic personality development process:…”

Antisocial Disorders in Adolescence and Youth, According to Structural, Emotional, and Cognitive Transdiagnostic Variables: A Systematic Review

“…In turn, rumination is closely associated at the cognitive level with another potentially transdiagnostic variable, such as violent ideation. It has presented significant associations with different mental health problems such as reactive, physical and proactive aggression [33], especially as a predictor in cases of poor self-control; however, it is not yet clear if violent ideation reflects the aggressive manifestation and not a causal variable [57] (Table 4). However, studies are inconclusive and require differentiation in terms of negative content and anger, particularly when closely linked to different psychopathologies, violent acts, and a general deterioration of mental health [58].…”