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Citation
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Oostermeijer S, Smeets KC, Jansen LMC, Jambroes T, Rommelse NNJ, Scheepers FE, Buitelaar JK, Popma A. Crim. Behav. Ment. Health 2017; 27(5): 395-408. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Aggression is often divided into reactive and proactive forms. Reactive aggression is typically thought to encompass 'blaming others' and 'assuming the worst', while proactive aggression relates to 'self-centeredness' and 'minimising/mislabelling'.
AIM: Our aim was to evaluate relationships between reactive and proactive aggression and cognitive distortions and to test whether changes in these cognitions relate to changes in aggression.
METHODS: A total of 151 adolescents (60% boys; mean age 15.05 years, standard deviation 1.28) were enrolled in an evidence-based intervention to reduce aggression. Due to attrition and anomalous responses, the post-intervention sample involved 80 adolescents. Correlation and linear regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship between cognitive distortions and aggression.
RESULTS: Blaming others was related to reactive aggression before the intervention, while all cognitive distortions were related to proactive aggression both pre- and post-intervention. Changes in reactive aggression were uniquely predicted by blaming others, while changes in proactive aggression were predicted by changes in cognitive distortions overall.
CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this study is the first to show a relationship between changes in cognitive distortions and changes in aggression. Treatment of reactive aggression may benefit from focusing primarily on reducing cognitive distortions involving misattribution of blame to others. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Language: en |