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Understanding the Victimization–Aggression Link in Childhood: The Roles of Sympathy and Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

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Abstract

With a sample of 4- and 8-year-olds (N = 131), we tested the extent to which more frequent experiences of victimization were associated with heightened aggression towards others, and how sympathetic concern and resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) factored into this relationship. Caregivers reported their children’s aggression and sympathy. Children reported their victimization and their resting RSA was calculated from electrocardiogram data in response to a nondescript video. Findings revealed that children who reported more frequent victimization were rated as less sympathetic and, in turn, more aggressive. However, resting RSA moderated this path, such that children with high levels were rated as more versus less sympathetic when they reported less versus more victimization, respectively. Results suggest that considering children’s sympathetic tendencies and physiology is important to gain a nuanced understanding of their victimization-related aggression.

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Notes

  1. In a previous pilot study, we dropped two reverse-coded items from the original seven-item scale due to low reliability for children. Since doing this, we have also used a five-item sympathy scale for caregiver informants, as the excluded items did not significantly improve reliability for them [40].

  2. Interactions between control (i.e., gender and age) and independent variables were not significant.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation Grant awarded to Tina Malti (FDN-148389). The authors thank the children and caregivers who participated, and the members of the Laboratory for Social-Emotional Development and Intervention who helped with data collection and processing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada

    Tyler Colasante, Joanna Peplak & Tina Malti

  2. Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Stefania Sette

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Tina Malti

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  1. Tyler Colasante
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  2. Joanna Peplak
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  3. Stefania Sette
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  4. Tina Malti
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Correspondence to Tyler Colasante.

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Colasante, T., Peplak, J., Sette, S. et al. Understanding the Victimization–Aggression Link in Childhood: The Roles of Sympathy and Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 50, 291–299 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-018-0841-5

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