Considers four issues pertaining to aggression and adaptation: (1) conceptual and operational definitions of aggression; (2) how aggression relates to adjustment difficulties for boys and girls and for children from different ethnic and socioeconomic groups; (3) whether specific forms of aggression relate to truly positive correlates and whether…

Assessed the relationship between moral reasoning, moral affect, social problem solving skills, and social preferences in preschool children. Found that girls who scored highest for relational aggression also rated highest for moral maturity, suggesting an evolutionary theory in which effective resource controllers would be simultaneously…

Four studies based on two longitudinal investigations examined the relation between social rejection and increased antisocial behavior. Found that early peer rejection (ages 6 to 8) predicted growth in aggression (at ages 10 to 12); findings were replicated in children ages 5 to 8. Rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children…

Assesses high school students' levels of dispositional optimism and pessimism, explanatory style and anger in relation to the school setting. Results suggest that anger management programs focusing on cognitive restructuring and related strategies can be a powerful means for reducing aggressive behaviors at school. (Contains 38 references.) (GCP)

Study compares 36 youths involved in street corner gangs in Singapore with 91 age-matched controls on measures of self-esteem, aggression, dysfunctional parenting and parent-adolescent communication. Results revealed that gang youths had lower self-esteem and higher levels of aggression than controls. Findings diverge from anticipated familial…

Studied the adjustment status associated with engagement in gender normative versus gender nonnormative aggression for boys and girls. Teacher and self-reports were used to assess internalizing and externalizing difficulties. Found that 9- to 12-year olds who engaged in gender nonnormative aggression were more maladjusted than children who engaged…

Examined the effects of level of resistance and type of sexual behavior on judgments regarding sexual aggression on a date. Findings from 195 undergraduates who read one of six vignettes describing a date in which unwanted sexual behavior occurred, reveal significant differences between levels of resistance and significant but smaller differences…

Discusses behavior management of confrontational situations in the classroom, including prevention, defusion, and follow-up. Strategies for defusion are suggested, such as focusing on the task rather than the attention-getting behavior, presenting options privately, reducing agitation, preteaching and presenting choices to establish limits, and…

Recreation and park personnel can be influential in beginning a concerted and systematic effort to develop anger- and aggression-management programs for youth. The article outlines examples of anger- and aggression-control program content, typical training procedures, possible program sessions, and organizational implementation. (SM)

A brief structural analysis of instructional variables assessed levels of task engagement and self-aggression behavior in a seven-year- old child with multiple disabilities. Results indicated increased levels of task-engagement and reduced levels of self-aggression as stepwise changes in treatment components occurred, validating use of structural…

This study surveyed 10,909 adolescents to probe aggressive attitudes among victims of school violence. Victims with aggressive attitudes were more likely to report they had carried weapons, used alcohol, or engaged in fights at school. Both victims and non-victims with aggressive attitudes reported lower grades and fewer supportive adults at…

Explores how the sex role orientation of adult observers relates to their perceptions of boys' and girls' aggression. Sex-typed and androgynous undergraduate subjects viewed videotapes of aggressive behavior between a girl-boy pair. Overall, subjects differed in their perceptions of the purposefulness of aggression and concerning appropriate…

Examined relationships among aggression, viewing and enjoyment of television violence, and personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism in sibling pairs (N=386) ages 11 to 16. Found no support for theory of causal effect on amount of viewing television violence on aggression. Found no within family correlations between amount…

Ten disruptive children (aged seven-nine), placed in a psychiatric facility's day program, were videotaped exhibiting physically assaultive behavior during dyadic free-play interactions. The rate and duration of aggressive behavior were affected by the gender of both initiator and recipient of assaults, the context of real versus fantasy play, and…

Examined parents' emotional responses to aggression and social withdrawal in early childhood, beliefs about the causes of problematic social behaviors, and strategies for responding to aggression and withdrawal. Considered variation in parental beliefs as a function of child sex and differences between mothers and fathers. (RH)