Social Goals and Youth Aggression: Meta‐analysis of Prosocial and Antisocial Goals

Abstract

To advance research evaluating the relationship between social information processing (Crick & Dodge) and youth aggression, this meta‐analytic study examined associations between social goals and aggression in children in 21 separate research reports. Eligible studies provided descriptive or preintervention measurement of children's aggression and social goals, and were reported in English by March 1, 2010. Findings from two random‐effects meta‐analyses utilizing clustered data analysis techniques (i.e., effect sizes nested within samples) supported an expected (1) negative association between prosocial goals and aggression, and (2) positive association between antisocial goals and aggression. Little heterogeneity in these associations was observed across studies, and no moderating variables were revealed. The findings extend existing meta‐analytic research on social information processing and aggression to include social goals as meaningful correlates of youth aggression.

The influence of peer behavior as a function of social and cultural closeness: A meta-analysis of normative influence on adolescent smoking initiation and continuation.

“…The present study applied a systematic and rigorous meta-analytic method and examined high quality longitudinal studies of varying duration. In an attempt to more precisely synthesize and quantify the association of peer behavior with smoking initiation and continuation, we also employed the robust variance estimation approach (RVE) with small-sample corrections, a mathematically sound and well-validated method for modeling within-study dependence among effect sizes (Hedges et al, 2010; Samson et al, 2012; Scammacca, Roberts, & Stuebing, 2014; Tanner-Smith & Tipton, 2014; Tipton, 2015). Finally, examining potential moderators of the effect allows us to advance theories of social influence on risk taking during adolescence.…”

“…To use all the available effect sizes in our sample without biasing the estimation, we applied the robust variance estimation (RVE) technique proposed by Hedges, Tipton, and Johnson (2010). The RVE approach allows inclusion of dependent effect sizes by correcting the standard errors when the correlations between effect sizes are unknown or could not be estimated (Samson, Ojanen, & Hollo, 2012; Tanner-Smith & Tipton, 2014). Considering that the most prevalent type of statistical dependence occurring in our sample was “hierarchical effects”, where a primary study reported different effect sizes from multiple distinct samples (e.g., effect sizes reflecting associations between peer smoking and smoking initiation in girls and boys separately), we implemented hierarchical effects weights in modeling our meta-regressions.…”

A New Trait-Based Model of Child-to-Parent Aggression

“…Boys who rated themselves as high on revenge and dominance goals with low affiliation goals were rated by their peers as lacking in attention, more aggressive, and least liked among their peers. Aggressive behavior was positively related to antisocial goals, while prosocial goals were negatively related to aggressive behavior (Samson et al 2012). This also demonstrates close association between social goals or motives and behavioral strategies that young people use (Li and Wright 2014).…”

Meta-Analysis With Complex Research Designs

“…Uttal et al (2013) implemented RVE in a meta-analysis that included 1,038 effect sizes from 206 studies that assessed the effect of training programs on spatial skills. Outside of educational research, RVE has been implemented in meta-analyses on the effectiveness of outpatient substance abuse treatment for adolescents (Tanner-Smith, Wilson, & Lipsey, 2013), the relationship between social goals and aggressive behavior in youth (Samson, Ojanen, & Hollo, 2012), and the effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on physical and mental health in adults (de Vibe, Bjørndal, Tipton, Hammerstrøm, & Kowalski, 2012). No published examples of the use of three-level meta-analysis to handle dependence were found in the educational research literature.…”