The development of forms and functions of aggression during early childhood: A temperament-based approach.

This study used a short-term longitudinal design with theoretically derived preregistered hypotheses and analyses to examine the role of temperament in the development of forms (i.e., physical and relational) and functions (i.e., proactive and reactive) of aggressive behavior in early childhood (N = 300, M age = 44.70 months, SD = 4.38, 44% girls). Temperament was measured via behavioral reports of emotional dysregulation, fearlessness/daring, and rule internalization/empathy and, in a subsample that completed a physiological assessment, via skin conductance and respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Emotion dysregulation generally served as a risk factor for all subtypes of aggression, with evidence of stronger associations with reactive as compared to proactive functions of relational aggression for girls. Daring predicted increases in physical aggression, especially among boys, and rule internalization predicted decreases in relational aggression, especially among girls. Rule internalization mediated longitudinal associations between daring and proactive relational aggression for girls. Some evidence also emerged supporting associations between adaptive functioning (i.e., high empathy, high respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and proactive functions of aggression. Findings highlight distinct temperamental risk factors for physical versus relational aggression and provide partial support for gender-linked theories of the development of aggression.

Children's moral reasoning about self- versus other-benefiting public health measures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced novel public health measures such as masking and social distancing. In adults, framing these behaviors as benefiting others versus the self has been shown to affect people's perceptions of public health measures and willingness to comply. Here we asked whether self- versus other-oriented frames of novel public health measures influence children's endorsement and moral reasoning. Children aged 5 to 10 years viewed hypothetical dilemmas of aliens in which we manipulated the frame (other-oriented or self-oriented) of the prevention behavior and the severity (high or low) of the potential harm. Across two studies (Study 1: N = 48; Study 2: N = 61), results showed that across ages framing the behaviors as other-oriented, but not self-oriented, yielded more positive ratings of individuals who followed the public health measures and more negative ratings of those who did not. Across both frames, children generally endorsed these public health measures when the severity was high. Children used more moralizing concepts in other-oriented frames and were more critical of intentional transgressions over accidental transgressions, demonstrating further evidence that other-oriented frames induce moral reasoning. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these framing effects for sociomoral reasoning and action.