In this article, I examine the development of aggressive behavior from middle childhood to adolescence as a result of the interaction between the person and the environment and discuss implications for intervention measures. Three main questions are addressed and illustrated by examples from recent research: What are intrapersonal risk factors for the development and persistence of aggressive behavior from middle childhood to adolescence? What factors in the social environment contribute to the development of aggressive behavior? How do individual dispositions and environmental risk factors interact to explain developmental trajectories of aggressive behavior?
AndersonC. A.BushmanB. J. (2018). Media violence and the General Aggression Model. Journal of Social Issues, 74, 386–413. doi:10.1111/josi.12275
3.
AndersonC. A.BushmanB. J.BartholowB. D.CantorJ.ChristakisD.CoyneS. M.. . . YbarraM. (2017). Screen violence and youth behavior. Pediatrics, 140(Suppl. 2), S142–S147. doi:10.1542/peds.2016-1758T
4.
AndersonC. A.SuzukiK.SwingE. L.GrovesC. L.GentileD. A.ProtS.. . . PetrescuP. (2017). Media violence and other aggression risk factors in seven nations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 986–998. doi:10.1177/0146167217703064
5.
BuschingR.KrahéB. (2015). The girls set the tone: Gendered classroom norms and the development of aggression in adolescence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 659–676. doi:10.1177/0146167215573212
6.
BuschingR.KrahéB. (2018). The contagious effect of deviant behavior in adolescence. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9, 815–824. doi:10.1177/1948550617725151
7.
BushmanB. J.HuesmannL. R. (2006). Short-term and long-term effects of violent media on aggression in children and adults. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 160, 348–352. doi:10.1001/archpedi.160.4
8.
CandelariaA. M.FedewaA. L.AhnS. (2012). The effects of anger management on children’s social and emotional outcomes: A meta-analysis. School Psychology International, 33, 596–614. doi:10.1177/0143034312454360
9.
DishionT. J. (2015). A developmental model of aggression and violence: Microsocial and macrosocial dynamics within an ecological framework. In LewisM.RudolphK. D. (Eds.), Handbook of developmental psychopathology (pp. 449–465). New York, NY: Springer.
10.
HayD. F. (2017). The early development of human aggression. Child Development Perspectives, 11, 102–106. doi:10.1111/cdep.12220
11.
HendriksA. M.BartelsM.ColinsO. F.FinkenauerC. (2018). Childhood aggression: A synthesis of reviews and meta-analyses to reveal patterns and opportunities for prevention and intervention strategies. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 91, 278–291. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.03.021
12.
HuesmannL. R. (2017). An integrative theoretical understanding of aggression. In BushmanB. J. (Ed.), Aggression and violence: A social psychological perspective (pp. 3–21). New York, NY: Routledge.
13.
JungJ.BuschingR.KrahéB. (2019). Catching aggression from one’s peers: A longitudinal and multilevel analysis. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13, Article e12433. doi:10.1111/spc3.12433
14.
KirschF.BuschingR.RohlfH.KrahéB. (2019). Using behavioral observation for the longitudinal study of anger regulation in middle childhood. Applied Developmental Science, 25, 105–118. doi:10.1080/10888691.2017.1325325
15.
KrahéB. (1992). Personality and social psychology: Towards a synthesis. London, England: SAGE.
16.
KrahéB. (2013). The social psychology of aggression (2nd ed.). Hove, England: Psychology Press.
17.
KrahéB. (2018). The impact of violent media on aggression. In IrelandJ. L.BirchP.IrelandC. A. (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of human aggression: Current issues and perspectives (pp. 319–330). London, England: Routledge.
18.
KrahéB.BuschingR. (2015). Breaking the vicious cycle of media violence use and aggression: A test of intervention effects over 30 months. Psychology of Violence, 5, 217–226. doi:10.1037/a0036627
19.
KrahéB.BuschingR.MöllerI. (2012). Media violence use and aggression among German adolescents: Associations and trajectories of change in a three-wave longitudinal study. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1, 152–166. doi:10.1037/a0028663
20.
LeonA. C.HeoM. (2009). Sample sizes required to detect interactions between two binary fixed-effects in a mixed-effects linear regression model. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 53, 603–608. doi:10.1016/j.csda.2008.06.010
21.
LewinK. (1936). Principles of topological psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
22.
MagnussonD.EndlerN. S. (Eds.). (1977). Personality at the crossroads. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
23.
MöllerI.KrahéB.BuschingR.KrauseC. (2012). Efficacy of an intervention to reduce the use of media violence and aggression: An experimental evaluation with adolescents in Germany. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, 105–120. doi:10.1007/s10964-011-9654-6
24.
ParkerE. H.HubbardJ. A.RamsdenS. R.RelyeaN.DearingK. F.SmithmyerC. M.SchimmelK. D. (2001). Children’s use and knowledge of display rules for anger following hypothetical vignettes versus following live peer interaction. Social Development, 10, 528–557. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00179
25.
PeplerD. J. (2018). The development of aggression in childhood and adolescence: A focus on relationships. In IrelandJ. L.BirchP.IrelandC. A. (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of human aggression: Current issues and perspectives (pp. 3–18). London, England: Routledge.
26.
PottsR.BeldenA. (2009). Parental guidance: A content analysis of MPAA motion picture rating justifications 1993–2005. Current Psychology, 28, 266–283. doi:10.1007/s12144-009-9065-y
27.
PrescottA. T.SargentJ. D.HullJ. G. (2018). Metaanalysis of the relationship between violent video game play and physical aggression over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 115, 9882–9888. doi:10.1073/pnas.1611617114
28.
RohlfH.BuschingR.KrahéB. (2017). Longitudinal links between maladaptive anger regulation, peer problems, and aggression in middle childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 63, 282–309. doi:10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.63.2.0282
29.
RohlfH. L.KrahéB. (2015). Assessing anger regulation in middle childhood: Development and validation of a behavioral observation measure. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 453. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00453
30.
RohlfH.KrahéB.BuschingR. (2016). The socializing effect of classroom aggression on the development of aggression and social rejection: A two-wave multilevel analysis. Journal of School Psychology, 58, 57–72. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2016.05.002
31.
SameroffA. (2009). The transactional model. In SameroffA. (Ed.), The transactional model of development: How children and contexts shape each other (pp. 3–21). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
32.
SnyderM.IckesW. (1985). Personality and social behavior. In LindzeyG.AronsonE. (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 883–947). New York, NY: Random House.
