Advertisement

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

, Volume 44, Issue 8, pp 1515–1526 | Cite as

Daily Deviations in Anger, Guilt, and Sympathy: A Developmental Diary Study of Aggression

  • Tyler ColasanteEmail author
  • Antonio Zuffianò
  • Tina Malti
Article
First Online:

Abstract

With a diary study of 4- and 8-year-olds, we tested the association between daily deviations in anger and aggressive behavior, and whether this link was moderated by feelings of guilt and sympathy. Caregivers reported their children’s anger and aggression for 10 consecutive days (470 records; N = 80, 53 % girls). To calculate daily anger deviations from average anger levels, we subtracted each child’s average anger score (i.e., across 10 days) from his/her daily anger scores. Children reported their guilty feelings in response to vignettes depicting intentional harm, as well as their dispositional sympathy levels. Multilevel modeling indicated that within-child spikes in daily anger were associated with more aggression, above and beyond between-child differences in average anger levels. However, this association was weaker for children who reported higher levels of guilt. Sympathy did not moderate the anger-aggression link. We discuss potential implications for affective-developmental models of aggression and interventions that target anger-related aggression.

Keywords

Aggression Anger Guilt Sympathy Childhood Diary study 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The authors thank the children and caregivers who participated, and the members of the Laboratory for Social-Emotional Development and Intervention (SEDI) who helped with data collection, entry, and coding.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest

Tyler Colasante declares that he has no conflict of interest. Antonio Zuffianò declares that he has no conflict of interest. Tina Malti declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

References

  1. Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for the ASEBA preschool forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.Google Scholar
  2. Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.Google Scholar
  3. Allen, J. L., Blatter-Meunier, J., Ursprung, A., & Schneider, S. (2010). Maternal daily diary report in the assessment of childhood separation anxiety. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 252–259. doi: 10.1080/15374410903532619.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  4. Arsenio, W. (2014). Moral emotion attributions and aggression. In M. Killen & J. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (2nd ed.pp. 235–255). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  5. Arsenio, W. F., Cooperman, S., & Lover, A. (2000). Affective predictors of preschoolers' aggression and peer acceptance: Direct and indirect effects. Developmental Psychology, 36, 438–448. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.36.4.438.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  6. Bierman, K. L., & Sasser, T. R. (2014). Conduct Disorder. In M. Lewis & K. Rudolph (Eds.), Handbook of developmental psychopathology (3rd ed.pp. 467–488). New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Björkqvist, K., Österman, K., & Kaukiainen, A. (1992). The development of direct and indirect aggressive strategies in males and females. In K. Björkqvist & P. Niemelä (Eds.), Of mice and women: Aspects of female aggression (pp. 51–64). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Statistics Canada. (2013). NHS profile, Mississauga, CY, Ontario, 2011. (Catalogue number 99–004-XWE). Retrieved from the Statistics Canada website: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E
  9. Catherine, N. L. A., & Schonert-Reichl, K. (2011). Children's perceptions and comforting strategies to infant crying: Relations to age, sex, and empathy-related responding. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 29, 524–551. doi: 10.1348/026151010X521475.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Chen, E., & Matthews, K. A. (2001). Cognitive appraisal biases: An approach to understanding the relation between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular reactivity in children. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 23, 101–111. doi: 10.1207/S15324796ABM2302_4.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  11. Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioural sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
  12. Colasante, T., Zuffianò, A., & Malti, T. (2015). Do moral emotions buffer the anger-aggression link in children and adolescents? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 41, 1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2015.06.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Cooley, S., Elenbaas, L., & Killen, M. (2012). Moral judgments and emotions: Adolescents’ evaluations in intergroup social exclusion contexts. New Directions for Youth Development, 136, 41–57. doi: 10.1002/yd.20037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Crick, N. R., Ostrov, J. M., & Werner, N. E. (2006). A longitudinal study of relational aggression, physical aggression, and children's social-psychological adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 131–142. doi: 10.1007/s10802-005-9009-4.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  15. Deffenbacher, J. L., Oetting, E. R., Thwaites, G. A., Lynch, R. S., Baker, D. A., Stark, R. S., et al. (1996). State-trait anger theory and the utility of the trait anger scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, 131–148. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.43.2.131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Dinolfo, C., & Malti, T. (2013). Interpretive understanding, sympathy, and moral emotion attribution in oppositional defiant disorder symptomatology. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 44, 633–645. doi: 10.1007/s10578-013-0357-y.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  17. Egger, H. L., & Angold, A. (2006). Common emotional and behavioral disorders in preschool children: Presentation, nosology, and epidemiology. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 313–337. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01618.x.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  18. Eisenberg, N. (2000). Empathy and sympathy. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (2nd ed.pp. 677–691). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  19. Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B. C., Shepard, S., Guthrie, I. K., Mazsk, P., et al. (1999). Prediction of elementary school children's socially appropriate and problem behavior from anger reactions at age 4–6 years. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 20, 119–142. doi: 10.1016/S0193-3973(99)80007-0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Eggum, N. D. (2010). Emotion-related self-regulation and its relation to children’s maladjustment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 495–525. doi: 10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.121208.131208.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  21. Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Morris, A. (2014). Empathy-related responding in children. In M. Killen & J. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (2nd ed.pp. 184–207). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  22. Eisner, M.P., & Malti, T. (2015). Aggressive and violent behavior. In M E. Lamb (Vol. Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Ser. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science, Vol. 3: Social, emotional and personality development (7th ed., pp. 795–884). New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
  23. Enders, C. K. (2010). Applied missing data analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  24. Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). The importance of what we care about: Philosophical essays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Giacomin, M., & Jordan, C. H. (2014). The wax and wane of narcissism: Grandiose narcissism as a process or state. Journal of Personality. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/jopy.12148Google Scholar
  26. Grusec, J. E., & Hastings, P. D. (2015). Handbook of socialization (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  27. Herts, K. L., McLaughlin, K. A., & Hatzenbuehler, M. L. (2012). Emotion dysregulation as a mechanism linking stress exposure to adolescent aggressive behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, 1111–1122. doi: 10.1007/s10802-012-9629-4.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  28. Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Hubbard, J. A., Smithmyer, C. M., Ramsden, S. R., Parker, E. H., Flanagan, K. D., Dearing, K. F., et al. (2002). Observational, physiological, and self-report measures of children’s anger: Relations to reactive versus proactive aggression. Child Development, 73, 1101–1118. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00460.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  30. Hubbard, J. A., Romano, L. J., McAuliffe, M. D., & Morrow, M. T. (2010). Anger and the reactive-proactive aggression distinction in childhood and adolescence. In M. Potegal, G. Stemmler, & C. Spielberger (Eds.), International handbook of anger: Constituent and concomitant biological, psychological, and social processes (pp. 231–239). New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Johnston, M., & Krettenauer, T. (2011). Moral self and moral emotion expectancies as predictors of anti- and prosocial behavior in adolescence: A case for mediation? The European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 8, 228–243. doi: 10.1080/17405621003619945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Kerr, M. A., & Schneider, B. H. (2008). Anger expression in children and adolescents: A review of the empirical literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 559–577. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2007.08.001.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  33. Kochanska, G., Gross, J. N., Lin, M., & Nichols, K. E. (2002). Guilt in young children: Development, determinants, and relations with a broader system of standards. Child Development, 73, 461–482. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00418.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  34. Krahé, B. (2013). The social psychology of aggression (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  35. Kreft, I. G. G., de Leeuw, J., & Aiken, L. S. (1995). The effect of different forms of centering in hierarchical linear models. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 30, 1–21. doi: 10.1207/s15327906mbr3001_1.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  36. Krettenauer, T., & Eichler, D. (2006). Adolescents' self-attributed moral emotions following a moral transgression: Relations with delinquency, confidence in moral judgment and age. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 489–506. doi: 10.1348/026151005X50825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Krettenauer, T., & Jia, F. (2013). Investigating the actor effect in moral emotion expectancies across cultures: A comparison of Chinese and Canadian adolescents. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 31, 349–362. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12012.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  38. Larsen, J. T., Norris, C. J., McGraw, A. P., Hawkley, L. C., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2009). The evaluative space grid: A single-item measure of positivity and negativity. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 453–480. doi: 10.1080/02699930801994054.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Larson, J., & Lochman, J. E. (2002). Helping school children cope with anger: A cognitive-behavioral intervention. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  40. Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Progress on a cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion. American Psychologist, 46, 819–834. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.46.8.819.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  41. Little, R. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 1198–1202. doi: 10.2307/2290157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Lochman, J. E., & Wells, K. C. (2004). The coping power program for preadolescent aggressive boys and their parents: Outcome effects at the 1-year follow-up. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 571–578. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.72.4.571.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  43. Lochman, J. E., Barry, T., Powell, N., & Young, L. (2010). Anger and aggression. In D. W. Nangle, D. J. Hansen, C. A. Erdley, & P. J. Norton (Eds.), Practitioner’s guide to empirically based measures of social skills (pp. 155–166). New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Lonigro, A., Schneider, B. H., Laghi, F., Baiocco, R., Pallini, S., & Brunner, T. (2015). Is cyberbullying related to trait or state anger? Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 46, 445–454. doi: 10.1007/s10578-014-0484-0.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  45. Ludwig, J., Duncan, G. J., & Hirschfield, P. (2001). Urban poverty and juvenile crime: Evidence from a randomized housing-mobility experiment. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116, 655–680. doi: 10.1162/00335530151144122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Malti, T. (2007). Moral emotions and aggressive behavior in childhood. In G. Steffgen & M. Gollwitzer (Eds.), Emotions and aggressive behavior (pp. 176–191). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.Google Scholar
  47. Malti, T. (2015). Toward an integrated clinical-developmental model of guilt. Developmental Review. Advance online publication. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2015.11.001Google Scholar
  48. Malti, T., & Krettenauer, T. (2013). The relation of moral emotion attributions to prosocial and antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 84, 397–412. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01851.x.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  49. Malti, T., & Latzko, B. (2012). Moral emotions. In V. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (2nd ed.pp. 644–649). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Malti, T., & Ongley, S. (2014). The development of moral emotions and moral reasoning. In M. Killen & J. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (2nd ed.pp. 163–183). New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  51. Malti, T., Killen, M., & Gasser, L. (2012). Social judgments and emotion attributions about exclusion in Switzerland. Child Development, 83, 697–711. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01705.x.PubMedGoogle Scholar
  52. Malti, T., Eisenberg, N., Kim, H., & Buchmann, M. (2013). Developmental trajectories of sympathy, moral emotion attributions, and moral reasoning: The role of parental support. Social Development, 22, 773–793. doi: 10.1111/sode.12031.Google Scholar
  53. Malti, T., Chaparro, M.P., Zuffianò, A., & Colasante, T. (2016). School-based interventions to promote empathy in children and adolescents: A developmental analysis. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/15374416.2015.1121822Google Scholar
  54. Mezulis, A. H., Priess, H. A., & Hyde, J. S. (2010). Rumination mediates the relationship between infant temperament and adolescent depressive symptoms. Depression Research and Treatment, 2011, 1–9. doi: 10.1155/2011/487873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  55. Murphy, B. C., Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S., & Guthrie, I. K. (1999). Consistency and change in children’s emotionality and regulation: A longitudinal study. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 413–444.Google Scholar
  56. Neumann, A., van Lier, P. A. C., Frijns, T., Meeus, W., & Koot, H. M. (2011). Emotional dynamics in the development of early adolescent psychopathology: A one-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 657–669. doi: 10.1007/s10802-011-9509-3.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  57. Nivette, A. E., Eisner, M., Malti, T., & Ribeaud, D. (2014). Sex differences in aggression among children of low and high gender inequality backgrounds: A comparison of gender role and sexual selection theories. Aggressive Behavior, 40, 451–464. doi: 10.1002/ab.21530.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  58. Ongley, S. F., & Malti, T. (2014). The role of moral emotions in the development of children’s sharing behavior. Developmental Psychology, 50, 1148–1159. doi: 10.1037/a0035191.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  59. Potegal, M., & Archer, J. (2004). Sex differences in childhood anger and aggression. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 13, 513–528. doi: 10.1016/j.chc.2004.02.004.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  60. Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. S., Cheong, Y. F., Congdon, R., & Du Toit, M. (2011). HLM 7: Hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling. Lincolnwood, IL: Scientific Software International.Google Scholar
  61. Renati, R., Cavionia, V., & Zanetti, M. A. (2011). ‘Miss, I got mad today!’ The Anger Diary, a tool to promote emotion regulation. The International Journal of Emotional Education, 3, 48–69.Google Scholar
  62. Rubin, K. H., Bukowski, W. M., & Laursen, B. (2011). Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  63. Russell, J. A., Weiss, A., & Mendelsohn, G. A. (1989). Affect grid: A single-item scale of pleasure and arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 493–502. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.57.3.493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  64. Schultz, D., Izard, C. E., & Bear, G. (2004). Children’s emotion processing: Relations to emotionality and aggression. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 371–387. doi: 10.1017/S0954579404044566.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  65. Spielberger, C. D., Reheiser, E. C., & Sydeman, S. J. (1995). Measuring the experience, expression, and control of anger. Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing, 18, 207–232. doi: 10.3109/01460869509087271.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  66. Strayer, J., & Roberts, W. (2004). Empathy and observed anger and aggression in five-year-olds. Social Development, 13, 1–13. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2004.00254.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  67. Tracy, J. L., Robins, R. W., & Lagattuta, K. H. (2005). Can children recognize pride? Emotion, 5, 251–257. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.5.3.251.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  68. van Noorden, T. H. J., Haselager, G. J. T., Cillessen, A. H. N., & Bukowski, W. M. (2015). Empathy and involvement in bullying in children and adolescents: A systematic review. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 637–657. doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0135-6.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  69. Vitaro, F., & Brendgen, M. (2005). Proactive and reactive aggression: A developmental perspective. In R. E. Tremblay, W. W. Hartup, & J. Archer (Eds.), Developmental origins of aggression (pp. 178–201). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  70. West, S. G., Ryu, E., Kwok, O., & Cham, H. (2011). Multilevel modeling: Current and future applications in personality research. Journal of Personality, 79, 2–50. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00681.x.CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  71. Zahn-Waxler, C., & Van Hulle, C. A. (2012). Empathy, guilt, and depression: When caring for others becomes costly to children. In B. Oakley, A. Knafo, G. Madhavan, & D. S. Wilson (Eds.), Pathological altruism (pp. 321–344). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  72. Zelazo, P. D., & Carlson, S. M. (2012). Hot and cool executive function in childhood and adolescence: Development and plasticity. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 354–360. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00246.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  73. Zelenski, J. M., & Larsen, R. J. (2000). The distribution of basic emotions in everyday life: A state and trait perspective from experience sampling data. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 178–197. doi: 10.1006/jrpe.1999.2275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  74. Zhou, Q., Valiente, C., & Eisenberg, N. (2003). Empathy and its measurement. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures (pp. 269–284). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tyler Colasante
    • 1
    Email author
  • Antonio Zuffianò
    • 2
  • Tina Malti
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of PsychologyUniversity of Toronto MississaugaMississaugaCanada
  2. 2.Department of PsychologyLiverpool Hope UniversityLiverpoolUK

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options