Testing a New Mediational Model of the Link Between Maltreatment and Aggression in Adolescence in Upstate New York, 2002-2004 (ICPSR 20425)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine whether adolescents who experience rejection by both peers and parents would demonstrate higher levels of aggression due to negative views of the self and/or others.

Study Design View help for Study Design

In Part 1 (Older Adolescent Data), participants included 125 male and female undergraduate students ranging in age from 18 to 27 years, who were recruited from psychology and human development classes in upstate New York and received course credit for participating in a study of relationships and problem solving. In small group testing sessions, participants completed assessments of several personality factors, justification of aggression, self-esteem, other-esteem, and aggression. Participants also completed the hypothetical situations task in which they assessed the provocateur's intent and their own likely response in each. Intent and response statements were entered verbatim into separate electronic databases. Unaware of the study hypotheses, 3 male and 6 female undergraduates were trained to independently code the exhaustive lists of 170 different intents and 339 different responses. The coders were instructed to assign low scores to positive intents, moderate scores to ambiguous intents, and high scores to aggressive intents. Similarly, coders assigned low scores to positive responses, moderate scores to ambiguous responses, and high scores to aggressive responses. Intent and response scores across all four vignettes were averaged, yielding one score for hostile attribution bias and one for response generation. For Part 2 (Adolescent Data), participants included 184 adolescents who were between the ages of 14 and 17 and enrolled at a suburban high school in upstate New York. Adolescents were recruited to participate in a study of relationships and problem solving through announcements made by the researcher in the students' homeroom. A total of nine homerooms participated across two academic years. All participation was voluntary with the adolescents and a parent or legal guardian providing written consent. Adolescent participants completed all of the study materials in group testing sessions during their homeroom period. Participants were compensated with ten dollars cash for participating in the study. Each participating student's homeroom teacher completed an assessment regarding the student's behavior. The eight participating teachers were each provided a twenty dollar gift card to a bookstore and a book on child development. As in Part 1, intent and response statements were coded and assigned scores. The intent and response scores across all four vignettes were averaged, yielding one score for hostile attribution bias and one for response generation.

Sample View help for Sample

For Part 1, participants included 125 male and female undergraduate students in upstate New York ranging in age from 18 to 27 years. For Part 2, participants included 184 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 who were enrolled in a suburban high school in upstate New York and 8 of their homeroom teachers.

Universe View help for Universe

For Part 1, the universe was all undergraduate students enrolled in a psychology class in upstate New York between 2002 and 2003. For Part 2, the universe included all students enrolled at an upstate New York high school between 2003 and 2004.

Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation

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Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

Part 1 (Older Adolescent Data) includes the demographic variables age, race, and gender and scores from the personality factors, justification of aggression, self-esteem, other-esteem, and aggression assessments and the hypothetical situations task. Part 2 (Adolescent Data) includes the demographic variables age, race, gender, ever lived in foster care, and ever arrested by police. Scores from the personality factors, justification of aggression, self-esteem, other-esteem, and aggression assessments and the hypothetical situations task are included. Part 2 also includes variables from the student's homeroom teacher assessing the student's behavior.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

The response rate for Part 1 is not available. For Part 2, the response rate was approximately 70 percent of all students recruited.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

Part 1: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (Rosenberg, 1965), Schema Assessment of Typicality (Burks, Laird, et al., 1999), Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin and Terry, 1988), Emotional Empathy Questionnaire (Mehrabian and Epstein, 1972), Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993), and Barratt Impulsivity Scale (Barratt, 1994; Patton, Stanford, and Barrat, 1995). Part 2: Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden and Greenberg, 1987), Things I Have Seen and Heard Scale (Richters and Martinez, 1990), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), Single Item Self-Esteem measure (Robins, Hendin, and Trzesniewski, 2001), Assessment of Schema Typically Scale (Burks, et al., 1999), Aggression Questionnaire (Buss and Perry, 1992), and Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach, 2001).

Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2009-03-31

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none