Reactive and proactive aggression: Similarities and differences (original) (raw)
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Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2012
researchers have identified two subtypes of aggression. reactive aggression is characterized by impulsive angry retaliation and has been associated with narcissism while proactive aggression is calculated and linked to psychopathy. however, these aggression subtypes commonly co-occur and little is known about factors that underlie each subtype or their overlap. the present study examined the relationship of psychophysiological factors, psychopathic, and narcissistic traits to proactive and reactive aggression during an experimental paradigm. among men, proactive aggression was predicted by low physiological reactivity to anxiety/punishment. Conversely, reactive aggression was associated with narcissistic traits and poor decision making under risk and rewards conditions for both sexes. Manipulative and egocentric features of psychopathy were related to proactive physical aggression among men but to reactive indirect aggression among women. these data point to factors that uniquely influence each aggression subtype and their co-occurrence, and highlight the role of gender in the expression of aggression.
Aggressive Behavior, 2006
This study reports the development of the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), and the differential correlates of these two forms of aggression. Antisocial, psychosocial and personality measures were obtained at ages 7 and 16 years in schoolboys, while the RPQ was administered to 334 of the boys at age 16 years. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a significant fit for a twofactor proactive-reactive model that replicated from one independent subsample to another. Proactive aggression was uniquely characterized at age 7 by initiation of fights, strong-arm tactics, delinquency, poor school motivation, poor peer relationships, single-parent status, psychosocial adversity, substance-abusing parents, and hyperactivity, and at age 16 by a psychopathic personality, blunted affect, delinquency, and serious violent offending. Reactive aggression was uniquely characterized at age 16 by impulsivity, hostility, social anxiety, lack of close friends, unusual perceptual experiences, and ideas of reference. Findings confirm and extend the differential correlates of proactive-reactive aggression, and demonstrate that this brief but reliable and valid self-report instrument can be used to assess proactive and reactive aggression in child and adolescent samples.
Reactive and Proactive Aggression: Stability of Constructs and Relations to Correlates
The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 2007
The authors examined short-term temporal stability of reactive and proactive aggression, as well as short-term consistency of differential relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to 4 correlates. The authors used parent, teacher, peer, and self-report measures twice across 1 year to assess reactive aggression, proactive aggression, hyperactivity, social skills, anger expression, and depressive symptoms of 2nd-grade boys and girls (N = 57). Both subtypes of aggression remained stable across the year, even when the other subtype of aggression was explained at each assessment. Reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was consistently positively related to hyperactivity, poor social skills, and anger expression at each assessment.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2016
This study was designed to examine whether proactive and reactive aggression are meaningful distinctions at the variable-and person-based level, and to determine their associated behavioral profiles. Data from 587 adolescents (mean age 15.6; 71.6 % male) from clinical samples of four different sites with differing levels of aggression problems were analyzed. A multi-level Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify classes of individuals (personbased) with similar aggression profiles based on factor scores (variable-based) of the Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) scored by self-report. Associations were examined between aggression factors and classes, and externalizing and internalizing problem behavior scales by parent report (CBCL) and self-report (YSR). Factor-analyses yielded a three factor solution: 1) proactive aggression, 2) reactive aggression due to internal frustration, and 3) reactive aggression due to external provocation. All three factors showed moderate to high correlations. Four classes were detected that mainly differed quantitatively (no 'proactive-only' class present), yet also qualitatively when age was taken into account, with reactive aggression becoming more severe with age in the highest affected class yet diminishing with age in the other classes. Findings were robust across the four samples. Multiple regression analyses showed that 'reactive aggression due to internal frustration' was the strongest predictor of YSR and CBCL internalizing problems. However, results showed moderate to high overlap between all three factors. Aggressive behavior can be distinguished psychometrically into three factors in a clinical sample, with some differential associations. However, the clinical relevance of these findings is challenged by the person-based analysis showing proactive and reactive aggression are mainly driven by aggression severity.
Reactively and proactively aggressive children: antecedent and subsequent characteristics
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2002
Background: Reactive and proactive subtypes of aggressive 10-11-12-year-old children were compared with non-aggressive children to examine whether the two forms of aggression were differentially related to antecedent and subsequent measures. Method: A large community sample of boys and girls was used. Reactive and proactive aggression was measured through teacher ratings when the children were 10, 11 and 12 years old. Antecedent measures were age 6 temperament and behavioral dispositions; subsequent measures were age 13 delinquency and depressive symptoms. Results: Results indicated that reactive and proactive children had distinctive profiles on antecedent and subsequent measures. Conclusions: We conclude that children characterized by reactive or proactive aggression differ on several dimensions of personal functioning, and that reactive and proactive aggression are distinct forms of aggression, although both co-occur in a large proportion of aggressive children.
Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Adolescent Males
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2010
There is limited knowledge about the unique relations between adolescent reactive and proactive aggression and later psychosocial adjustment in early adulthood. Accordingly, this study prospectively examined associations between adolescent (mean age = 16) reactive and proactive aggression and psychopathic features, antisocial behavior, negative emotionality, and substance use measured 10 years later in early adulthood (mean age = 26). Study questions were examined in a longitudinal sample of 335 adolescent males. Path analyses indicate that after controlling for the stability of the outcome and the overlap between the two subtypes of aggression, reactive aggression is uniquely associated with negative emotionality, specifically anxiety, in adulthood. In contrast, proactive aggression is uniquely associated with measures of adult psychopathic features and antisocial behavior in adulthood. Both reactive and proactive aggression uniquely predicted substance use in adulthood, but the su...
Aggressive Behavior
Reactive and proactive aggression is a dichotomous classification of aggression in adults and children. This distinction has been supported by a number of variable-based and factor analytic studies. Due to high inter-correlations, however, the reactive-proactive aggression distinction may not be entirely useful for understanding how group or individual aggressive behavior varies in children and adolescents. Drawing on a sample of primary school-aged children (N=242) aged 7 to 12 years, this study sought to determine whether reactive and proactive aggression could be distinguished at the variable-level and the person-level in children. Exploratory Factor Analysis of data from an aggression instrument measuring both functions and forms of aggression, found a twofactor construct of aggression constituted by a reactive and proactive aggression factor. A personbased analysis was then conducted after classifying children according to the presence of reactive and/or proactive aggression. Discriminant function analysis was used to discern whether classifications on the basis of aggression function produced meaningful distinctions in terms of antisocial traits and emotional valence and intensity measures. Two functions were identified which distinguished children with different combinations of reactive and proactive aggression. Reactiveonly aggressive children were defined primarily by high levels of impulsivity, while proactive-only children were defined primarily by higher levels of antisocial traits. Children high in both types of aggression exhibited both the presence of antisocial traits and impulsivity. Contrary to recent findings, this suggests that differences in aggression functions remain meaningful at the person level in children. Implications for interventions are discussed. Aggressive behavior is a major source of referral to child and adolescent mental health clinicians (Rutter et al., 2009) and individuals with such a presentation can cost society up to 10 times more than their healthy counterparts in aggregate health care and social service expenditures (Blair, 2013). The consequences of aggression are wide ranging for both perpetrators (e.g., multiple social problems, isolation, criminal behavior, unemployment in adulthood) and victims (e.g.,
Gender differences in reactive and proactive aggression
Child psychiatry and human development, 2003
The purpose of our investigation was to study gender differences in proactive and reactive aggression in a sample of 323 clinically referred children and adolescents (68 females and 255 males). Proactive aggression and reactive aggression were assessed using the Proactive/Reactive Aggression Scale. Demographic, historical, family, diagnostic, and treatment variables were entered into stepwise regression analyses to determine correlates of proactive and reactive aggression in males and females. Results reveal high rates of aggression in both males and females in the sample. Self reported drug use, expressed hostility, and experiences of maladaptive parenting were correlated with proactive aggression for both genders. Hyperactive/impulsive behaviors were correlated with male reactive aggression. An early age of traumatic stress and a low verbal IQ were correlated with female proactive aggression. Gender differences in correlates of proactive and reactive aggression may provide possibl...
Reactive and proactive aggression: Evidence of a two-factor model
Psychological Assessment, 2000
This article examines the construct validity of reactive and proactive aggression, as assessed by the teacher-rating scale developed by K. A. . In Study 1 (n = 149 boys), confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a 2-factor model, in which a substantial correlation was observed between the 2 latent factors, presented a better fit than a single-factor model. Study 2(n= 193 boys)"examined the relations presented by the 2 forms of aggression with peer status, leadership, social withdrawal, and victimization by peer. Reactive and proactive aggressive behaviors presented distinct patterns of relations consistent with the theoretical definitions. The results of these studies suggest that the questionnaire measures 2 forms of aggressive behavior that, although being substantially related, have a unique discriminant dimension.