Cognitive mechanisms underlying within-person changes in aggression among adolescents: The roles of positive outcome expectancies and moral disengagement

Abstract

A Dual-Path Model of Aggression, grounded in the Social Information Processing Model, was developed to address the issue of cognitive mechanisms underlying within-person changes in adolescent aggression. To test the model, we examined longitudinal relationships between positive outcome expectancies for aggression, moral disengagement, and aggression in 712 middle-school students, assessed four times over a 1.5-year period. A Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) analysis indicated a bidirectional relationship between within-person changes in positive outcome expectancies and aggression across Time 1-Time 2 and Time 2-Time 3, while moral disengagement at Time 3 mediated the effect of positive outcome expectancies at Time 2 on aggression at Time 4. These results partly support the Dual-Path Model of Aggression and suggest that there is a bidirectional relationship between the database factors (which are proposed in the Social Information Processing Model and refer to the latent mental structures encompassing memory store and social schema) and aggression, and an indirect path from database factors (e.g., positive outcome expectancies) to aggression via cognitive variables of the social information processing step (e.g., moral disengagement) at the within-person level. These within-person effects contribute to the targeted interventions for aggressive cognitions and behaviors.

Plain Language Summary

Grounded in the Social Information Processing theory, a Dual-Path Model of Aggression was developed, which posits both a bidirectional relationship between positive outcome expectancies and aggression, and an indirect pathway where positive outcome expectancies affect aggression through moral disengagement. To examine the model, we explored longitudinal relationships between positive outcome expectancies for aggression, moral disengagement, and aggression in 712 middle-school students, assessed four times over a 1.5-year period. An Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) analysis indicated a bidirectional relationship between within-person changes in positive outcome expectancies and aggression across Time 1-Time 2 and Time 2-Time 3, while moral disengagement at Time 3 mediated the effect of positive outcome expectancies at Time 2 on aggression at Time 4. These results partly support the Dual-Path Model of Aggression. Moreover, the within-person findings indicate that interventions targeting positive outcome expectancies are an effective means of reducing aggressive behavior.