Project Details
Projekt
Self-Regulatory Skills as well as Internal and External Factors as Predictors of Aggressive and Antisocial Behavior in Adolescence
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Rebecca Bondü
Subject Area
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426314138
Aggressive and antisocial behavior often has negative consequences in the long run, both for those affected by this behavior and for those who show it. This is particularly problematic because this behavior tends to be stable and to persist into adulthood. During adolescence, some forms of aggressive and antisocial behavior peak in their prevalence rates. It is, therefore, important to know concurrent and long-term risk factors for this behavior in childhood and adolescence, in order to develop effective preventive and intervention measures. Inadequate self-regulatory skills may impede controlling negative behavioral impulses and showing adaptive prospective behavior instead. In line with this reasoning, theories that aim at explaining aggressive and antisocial behavior point to inadequate self-regulatory skills as one important risk factor for this behavior. Already exiting empirical findings underscore these assumptions. There, however, are also still a number of gaps in research. First, there is a general lack of knowledge on the long-term effects of self-regulatory skills during adolescence, also with regard to aggressive and antisocial behavior. Second, little is known about how different physiological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral self-regulatory skills interact in predicting such behavior and which skills are of particular importance in this regard. Third, little is known about whether there may be differential links between different self-regulatory skills and aggressive and antisocial behavior, depending on the specific form of behavior as well as the age of the individuals who show this behavior. Finally, self-regulatory skills have not often been used to predict classes and trajectories of aggressive and antisocial behavior. In order to fill these gaps in research, the present study aims at researching the links between a broad range of basal and complex self-regulatory skills, different forms of aggressive and antisocial behavoir, as well as a number of internal and external control variables, including self-esteem, justice sensitivity, Theory of Mind, experiences of discrimination, family risk factors, and affiliation with deviant peers, during adolescence. The study will include about 1000 participants between 15 and 20 years of age that already took part in a longitudinal study with three waves of measurement during in middle childhood. Controlling for further external and internal known risk factors of aggressive and antisocial behavior will allow to examine whether self-regulatory skills add to explaining incremental variance beyond these factors. The findings from this study may be used to design tailored preventive and interventive measures for different forms of aggressive and antisocial behavior in childhood and adolescence with a special focus on self-regulatory skills.
DFG Programme
Research Units
