Abstract
The present study examined if overarousal (i.e., dysregulation and high emotional sensitivity) and underarousal (i.e., fearlessness and emotional insensitivity) to peer stress, reflected in physiological reactivity and subjective emotional sensitivity, exacerbated risk for relational aggression in relationally victimized children. Participants were a community sample of 125 children (10–12 years, M = 11.34 years, SD = 0.89; 45% female). Teachers provided ratings of children’s relational victimization and relational aggression. Children’s physiological reactivity was assessed based on skin conductance level (SCL) reactivity and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity to a standardized peer rejection task. Children’s subjective emotional sensitivity was assessed using self-reported ratings of distress to hypothetical relational provocation vignettes. Results indicated that relational victimization was significantly associated with relational aggression only for children with high SCL reactivity and high emotional sensitivity (i.e., physiological and subjective overarousal) and for children with low SCL reactivity and low emotional sensitivity (i.e., physiological and subjective underarousal); relational victimization did not predict relational aggression among children with high SCL reactivity but low emotional sensitivity or among children with low SCL reactivity but high emotional sensitivity. Relational victimization was also marginally more strongly associated with relational aggression for children displaying RSA augmentation. Results suggest emotional overarousal and underarousal may both serve as vulnerabilities for relational aggression among relationally victimized youth, and underscore the importance of including physiological and subjective indices of emotional reactivity in studies of aggression. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.
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Teacher reports of physical aggression were also collected from teachers using the CSB-TR; however, rates of this form of aggression were extremely low within the sample (M = 1.17, SD = 0.42), with 76% of children rated as “never” engaging in this form of aggression. Controlling for physical aggression within models did not change the pattern of results; hence physical aggression was not further examined.
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We are grateful to the families and teachers who generously participated in this study. We would like to acknowledge Rosalyn Langhinrichsen-Rohling and Sarah Mattison Buhl for their important roles in collecting this data.
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McQuade, J.D., Murray-Close, D., Breslend, N.L. et al. Emotional Underarousal and Overarousal and Engagement in Relational Aggression: Interactions between Relational Victimization, Physiological Reactivity, and Emotional Sensitivity. J Abnorm Child Psychol 47, 1663–1676 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00544-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-019-00544-3