title: Approach/positive anticipation, frustration/anger, and overt aggression in childhood.
abstract: We examined mothers' ratings of children's affective and behavioral aspects of approach tendencies and links with overt aggressive behavior problems while considering the genetic etiology of these processes. Approach/positive anticipation (AP), frustration/anger (FA), and overt aggression in 4-9-year-olds were assessed using mothers' reports in a diverse national sample (n=992) and a sample of same-sex twins (n=195 pairs). AP and FA were positively correlated with each other and with overt aggression (r from .2 to .5), and these associations were very similar for boys and girls. AP and FA provided overlapping as well as independent statistical prediction of aggression. AP statistical prediction of aggression was substantially mediated by FA, an effect that was accounted for by underlying genetic and nonshared environmental influences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, 109 Williams Hall (0436), Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. kirbydd@vt.edu
authors.forename: Kirby
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deater-Deckard
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beekman
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jungmeen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Petrill
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dethorne
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000786:Anger; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005639:Frustration; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D010551:Personality; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014427:Twins / Q000523:psychology