Risk, Regulation, and Relationships: Understanding Youth Aggression in Online and Offline Contexts

• In Event: From Neuroscience To Justice: Examining The Intersections Of Mental Health, Substance Use, And Delinquency In Youth

Abstract

Social aggression, in-person and online, remains a significant developmental concern with implications for school safety and youth wellbeing. Although parenting practices and emotion regulation have been independently linked to aggression, less is known about their combined influence or sex-specific patterns in pre-adolescence. To further understanding of developmental risk pathways online, this study uses baseline data from the ABCD Social Development Study (ABCD-SD, N = 2,420, average age 11) to examine associations between parenting practices, emotion regulation, and perpetration of peer aggression, including in-person and online aggression outcomes. The study finds inconsistent discipline and lower positive parenting were modestly associated with emotion regulation difficulties. Impulse control and engaging in goal-directed behavior predicted reactive verbal aggression, and, to a lesser extent, proactive aggression. Limited access to emotion-regulation strategies predicted cyber aggression. The findings highlight mechanisms that may escalate conflict and risk in school and online contexts. Limited sex differences suggest that at this developmental stage, both boys and girls are still building basic regulatory skills, making early preadolescence an effective window for intervention. The results underscore the need for continued longitudinal research to inform targeted, sex-related differences in aggression-prevention strategies and identify developmentally appropriate socio-emotional supports.

Authors

• Emalee Dauginikas, University of Pittsburgh

• Douglas Fitzgeral, University of Pittsburgh

• Lia Ahonen, University of Pittsburgh