Poster #2 - Early Maternal and Child Predictors of Cognitive Biases Regarding Aggression in At-Risk Adolescents

• In Event: 3-038 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: 13 - Aggression and Conduct Problems

Abstract/Description

Adolescence is an important period that presents increased risk for aggression perpetration and victimization. Biased information processing and beliefs about aggression have been found to increase the risk for the development and maintenance of aggression (e.g., Crick & Dodge, 1994). Theories often highlight the role of parents, particularly the risk of harsh and rejecting parenting (e.g., Patterson, 1982), as well as child temperament (e.g., Vitaro et al., 2006) in the increased risk of social-cognitive biases regarding aggression. Temperamentally fearless children who experience harsh parenting may be at high risk for developing cognitive biases favoring aggression. The aim of the present study was to investigate pathways from infancy and toddlerhood to cognitive biases regarding aggression in adolescence (e.g., beliefs about aggression and biases towards perceiving hostility). Pathways to cognitive biases favoring aggression via parent-child interactions and child temperamental fearlessness in a high-risk (lower socio-economic status, diverse) sample were examined. In particular, maternal harshness was hypothesized to exacerbate risk.

The sample consisted of 101 mother-infant dyads recruited prenatally and assessed from pregnancy through early adolescence. The sample was primarily Black/African American (84%) and receiving public assistance (71%). Child fearlessness (latency to fear response) was coded in response to fear stimuli taken from the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery at 7 months of child age. Maternal negative affect (e.g., disapproval, criticism, angry voice) was coded during 10-minute free play interactions at 24 months. Parent responses to child negative emotion and distress was assessed (Fabes & Bernzweig, 1990) at 48 months old. In early adolescence (M = 13.6 years, SD = .53; 57% female), aggressive cognitive biases were assessed: moral judgments about physical aggression and hostile attribution biases for instrumental provocations (HAB; e.g., Crick et al., 2002). Maternal substance use during pregnancy (i.e., cocaine, alcohol, and cigarettes) and relationally aggressive biases were controlled for in analyses. 79 participants had data on all measures. All measures had acceptable psychometric properties.

Within Process Macro (Hayes, 2013) models predicting moral judgements and HAB for relational and physical aggression, interactions with maternal negative affect and maternal and child factors were tested. There was a significant interaction effect between maternal negative affect (at 24 months) and maternal punitive reactions to child negative emotion (at 48 months) in predicting early adolescents’ moral judgments of proactive physical aggression (Figure 1). There was also a significant interaction between maternal negative affect and child fearlessness in infancy predicting HAB for instrumental provocations in adolescence (Figure 2).

Results highlighted the important role of maternal and child factors as well as mother-child interactions on the development of cognitive biases in adolescence. In particular, early experiences with maternal negative affect seem to be particularly critical in creating a context of risk. These findings on cognitive biases also have implications for better understanding the developmental pathways to adolescent aggression. Understanding developmental pathways of risk for aggression perpetration is critical to intervening effectively.

Authors

• Stephanie A Godleski, Rochester Institute of Technology
  Presenting Author

• Jamie Ostrov, University of Buffalo

• Amanda Nickerson, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

• Rina Das Eiden, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

• Margaret Kneuer, Mercyhurst University

• Idean Ettekal, Texas A&M University

• Pamela Schuetze, SUNY Buffalo State

• Craig Colder, University of Buffalo