Poster #128 - Is Feeling Bad Always Good? Healthy Guilt and Children’s Aggressive Behavior

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Guilt reflects a self-conscious, negative emotion stemming from the recognition that one has violated a social norm (Tangney et al., 2012). Children lacking the capacity for guilt are at a heightened risk for severe aggression and violence. Within the clinical-developmental literature, guilt is frequently operationalized as the degree to which children express negative affect after misbehavior (Frick et al., 2014; Malti, 2016). Researchers have also stressed the importance of considering the reasons underlying children’s negative reactions to wrongdoing (Malti et al., 2018). Healthy guilt in the context of social and moral conflict is guilt based on concerns over harming others (Colasante & Malti, 2018). It may play an important role in constraining children’s aggressive impulses. In contrast, unhealthy guilt arising from self-centered (e.g., fear of retribution) or extrinsic (e.g., authority disapproval) concerns may not relate to aggression. This multi-informant study tested this hypothesis by examining whether the presence and type of guilt children experience after harming others have implications for their aggressive behavior.

Data were collected from an ethnically diverse sample (N = 300) of 4- and 8-year-old Canadian children and their caregivers (n = 150 in each age group; 50% female). Interviewers asked children to imagine they had behaved aggressively towards a peer (shoving, stealing) with the help of hypothetical vignettes. Specifically, they asked children a) how they would feel after doing that and b) why they would feel that way. Anticipated emotions and justifications were coded using the SERT system (Malti et al., 2018), a valid and reliable assessment of children’s social emotions (kappas = 1.00/.89 for emotions/justifications). Caregivers rated children’s aggressive behavior on 7-point scale using items from the CBCL’s aggressive behavior syndrome scale (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000).

Children were classified into one of three groups based on their responses to the vignettes: No Guilt (43%) = positive/neutral emotions; Healthy Guilt (36%) = negative emotions based on concern for others/moral principles; Non-Healthy Guilt (19%) = negative emotions based on self-centered or extrinsic concerns (e.g., fear of punishment). Group composition varied by age group (but not gender): 4-year-olds represented a larger proportion of the NoG group compared to 8-year-olds (75% vs. 25%), whereas 8-year-olds were more likely to be classified into the Healthy (80% vs. 20%) and Non-Healthy groups (68% vs. 32%).

Aggression scores (see Table 1) were analyzed using a 2 (age) x 2 (gender) x 3 (guilt group) ANOVA. Four-year-olds were more aggressive than 8-year-olds, F(1, 259) = 42.30, p < .001. A main effect of guilt group also emerged, F(2, 259) = 4.33, p = .01. Children in the Non-Healthy group were rated by caregivers as more aggressive than children in the Healthy (p =.005) and No Guilt groups (p =.028). Aggression did not differ between the Healthy and No Guilt groups (p = .49). Group differences were not moderated by age (p = .95) or gender (p = .62). These findings underscore the importance of considering the reasons underlying children’s guilt and will be discussed in relation to recent clinical-developmental models of guilt.

Authors

• Tyler Colasante, University of Toronto at Mississauga
  Presenting Author

• Marc Jambon, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joanna Peplak, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tina Malti, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author