Poster #85 - The Correlation and Mediation Relationship Between Hostile Intent Attribution and Aggression in Japan

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Background:
Hostile intent attribution (HIA) is the tendency to attribute hostile intentions to others when their intentions are ambiguous and the outcome is negative. Previous studies have shown that high HIA significantly correlates with and contributes to the development of aggression in children. However, studies that directly examined the factors that explain the relationship between HIA and aggression are lacking. The current study investigated (a) the correlation between HIA and aggression and (b) the mediators (hyperactivity, prosociality, and collaborative problem-solving) that separately mediate the relationship between HIA and aggression in Japanese children aged 4–9 years.
Methods:
We pre-registered the study with the Open Science Framework on February 2, 2021 (https://osf.io/b4ca3). The data were collected online from February 3 to 9, 2021. The participants were 180 children aged 4–9 years (children’s M age in months = 83.83; SD = 21.25; range = 48–119; 15 girls for each age) and their caregivers (caregivers’ M age = 39.71, range = 25–55, 91.10% females). First, the caregivers reported their children's aggression, hyperactivity, prosociality, and collaborative problem-solving through questionnaires. Next, the caregivers worked on the task of HIA with their children and reported their responses. As an analytic strategy, first, we conducted a correlation analysis to examine the relationship between HIA and aggression. Second, we conducted mediation analyses to examine the relationship between HIA and aggression using three mediators.
Results:
The results showed (a) a weak positive correlation between HIA and aggression (ρ = .19, p = .01) and (b) significant indirect effects among all mediation models (for the model with hyperactivity as the mediator, β = .08, SE = 0.09, p = .03, 95% CI [0.05, 0.42]; for the model with prosociality as the mediator, β = .07, SE = 0.08, p = .02, 95% CI [0.07, 0.40]; and for the model with collaborative problem-solving as the mediator, β = .07, SE = 0.09, p = .03, 95% CI [0.03, 0.38]). Furthermore, by comparing models exploratory, the model containing all three mediators yielded the smallest Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC = 3465.57; Table 1) among models with one mediator (i.e., fix two mediators’ path coefficients to zero), two mediators (i.e., fix one mediator’s path coefficient to zero), and three mediators (i.e., no fixing of the coefficients). The indirect effect was significant only for the path with hyperactivity as the mediator (β = .05, SE = 0.06, p = .047, 95% CI [0.002, 0.25]; Figure 1).
Discussion:
The results of the current study provide several suggestions for revealing the mechanism underlying the relationship between HIA and aggression in childhood. Notably, children’s hyperactivity characteristics were suggested to play a particularly important role in the relationship between HIA and aggression. Children's aggressive tendencies with high HIA might be reduced by intervening in their characteristics, such as hyperactivity.

Authors

• Nozomi Yamamoto, Kyoto University
  Presenting Author

• Sho Ohigashi

• Naoya Todo

• Yusuke Moriguchi, Kyoto University