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“Accept Me, or Else…”: Disputed Overestimation of Social Competence Predicts Increases in Proactive Aggression

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Abstract

It has been proposed that aggressive behavior may result from unrealistically positive self-evaluations that are disputed by others (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996). The present three studies tested this proposition concurrently and longitudinally for the domain of self-perceived social competence (SPSC) in 3–6th grade children on two continents. Each study tested whether aggressive behavior is related to general overestimation of SPSC compared to competence as perceived by peers, or to disputed overestimation, that is, overestimation disputed through rejection by peers. Specificity of relations with reactively or proactively aggressive behavior patterns was assessed and the predictive value of overestimation to the development of these types of aggressive behavior was investigated. Concurrently, disputed overestimation explained more variance in aggressive behavior than general overestimation, and was uniquely related to proactive aggression. Longitudinally, disputed overestimation also uniquely predicted changes in proactive, not reactive aggression.

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Notes

  1. To test whether data reduction from the continuous social preference variable to the dichotomous rejection variable influenced the findings, all analyses reported for the three studies were also conducted using the social preference variables instead of the rejection variables. When doing so, all findings essentially remained the same. For clarity of exposure we only discuss analyses conducted with the rejection variables here. Results of analyses with the social-preference variables are available from the first author on request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Bram Orobio de Castro, Herman Van Boxtel & Linda Schaepers

  2. Department of Psychology, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Mara Brendgen

  3. Research Unit on Children’s Psychosocial Maladjustment, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Frank Vitaro

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  1. Bram Orobio de Castro
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  2. Mara Brendgen
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  3. Herman Van Boxtel
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  4. Frank Vitaro
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  5. Linda Schaepers
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Correspondence to Bram Orobio de Castro.

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de Castro, B.O., Brendgen, M., Van Boxtel, H. et al. “Accept Me, or Else…”: Disputed Overestimation of Social Competence Predicts Increases in Proactive Aggression. J Abnorm Child Psychol 35, 165–178 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9063-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-006-9063-6

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