Preventing aggression is a global social issue that warrants additional research with up-to-date measures. Aggressive behaviors manifest in several ways, and the proper assessment should capture its multidimensional nature. We developed the Forms and Functions of Aggressive Behavior Scale (FFABS) to capture the field's current multidimensional understanding of aggression, including its forms (physical, verbal, and relational) and functions (proactive and reactive). Across three studies (N = 1388), we validated the factor structure of the FFABS, obtained partial scalar measurement invariance for males and females, and demonstrated consistent patterns with theoretically related stable constructs and with behavioral measures of inhibitory control and aggressive behaviors, establishing convergent and discriminant validity. We discuss the findings, limitations, practical implications, and future research directions.

Despite evidence suggesting that partner maltreatment-a concept which represents a wide array of negative, destructive, and abusive behaviors in romantic relationships-is likely to fluctuate over time, the longitudinal trajectory of partner maltreatment is unclear. This study aims to identify the average trajectory of partner maltreatment over a 5-month period before applying an attachment-informed diathesis-stress framework to explain points of escalation or de-escalation in partner maltreatment perpetration. Two hundred and eight individuals completed 5 monthly assessments of partner maltreatment as well as an assessment of adult attachment and perceived stress at baseline. A nonlinear (i.e., quadratic function) trajectory provided optimal fit for partner maltreatment perpetration over time. An interaction between attachment avoidance and perceived stress predicted the trajectory of partner maltreatment perpetration. Specifically, higher attachment avoidance and higher perceived stress predicted a small initial decline followed by a steep increase in partner maltreatment perpetration. No significant associations were found for the interaction between attachment anxiety and stress and partner maltreatment. The findings suggest that perpetration of partner maltreatment fluctuates over time, and that an attachment-informed diathesis-stress framework can be applied to explain levels of partner maltreatment perpetration and points of escalation and de-escalation over time.

This study assesses whether the frequency of violent video game play is associated with attentional desensitization or sensitization to images depicting violence or nonviolent interpersonal conflict. Two hundred and thirty-two participants reported their three most frequently played video games and the amount of time each game was played in a typical week. Next, they completed an assessment of emotion-induced blindness, which refers to a reduction in the correct identification of a neutral target image when it follows an emotionally charged distractor image. The primary findings showed that weekly violent video game play was negatively associated with target identification following nonviolent interpersonal conflict images, but not violent images. Findings are discussed in terms of the saliency of threatening images and attentional processing.

In our original study, "Consumed by Creed" (Adam-Troian & Bélanger, 2024), we established significant and consistent associations between obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom severity and radical intentions across four distinct U.S. population samples-Environmentalists, Republicans, Democrats, and Muslims-partially or fully mediated by obsessive passion. Fillon et al. (2024) challenged our findings, alleging methodological errors and an excessive degree of researcher flexibility, which they claim could lead to false-positive results. In this response, we critically examine Fillon et al.'s commentary, arguing that it exemplifies flawed meta-scientific critique. We demonstrate that their approach relies on a series of unsupported and misleading claims, including a misinterpretation of the literature, unjustified reliance on visual data inspection, speculative assumptions about religious influences on our findings, and a shifting of the burden of proof. Through rigorous re-analyses, we reaffirm the robustness of our original results and address the unfounded allegations regarding our methodological practices. We also critique Fillon et al.'s approach, highlighting the necessity of domain-specific expertize in meta-scientific evaluations and cautioning against the risks of speculative and defamatory criticism in academic discourse. This exchange underscores the importance of maintaining rigorous standards in both original research and its critique, ensuring that scientific debate remains grounded in evidence rather than conjecture.

Bystanders play an important role in cyberbullying, yet the majority of bystanders remain silent as outsiders. To date, research on the measurement and influencing factors of outsider behavior in the context of cyberbullying is lacking. This research first adapted a valid and reliable instrument to measure this construct and then examined its influencing factors based on the arousal: cost-reward model. In Study 1, a total of 901 participants (55% female, mean age = 20.84) were randomly divided into two subsamples: one for exploratory factor analysis (n = 450) and the other for confirmatory factor analysis (n = 451). The final eight-item measurement had good reliability and validity with a three-factor structure of self-disengagement, cautious avoidance, and victim blaming. Study 2 investigated the relationships among the severity of cyberbullying incidents, empathic concern, cost for help, and outsider behavior. Among 331 participants (57% female, mean age = 21.08), 168 participants were randomly assigned to the high-severity group. Results found that the severity has indirect effects on the three outsider behavioral orientations through the empathic concern. Severity also has indirect effects on outsider behaviors of cautious avoidance and victim blaming through the influence of empathic concern on cost for help.

Polyvagal theory posits that habitually aggressive individuals might have an impaired capacity to calm after arousal, which has led to the investigation of Arousal-based biological indicators - "biomarkers" - of aggression, to identify individuals at high risk. The most popular approach in research examining (specifically reactive) aggression is the use of wearable technologies that can non-invasively measure heart rate variability (HRV), a cardiovascular phenomenon impacted by activation of the parasympathetic ("rest and digest") nervous system. But there is a problem: no one has systematically analyzed the results of these studies to determine if HRV is an effective predictor of reactive aggression. We surveyed an initial 705 articles, producing 48 effect estimates amenable to meta-analysis. Counter to predictions derived from polyvagal theory, the results reveal no correlation between HRV and reactive aggression. We discuss the implications of this novel finding for theory and practice, considering both the complexity of identifying effective biomarkers and the practical limitations driving methodological decisions in aggression research. We conclude that there is no empirical evidence supporting HRV as a valid biomarker of aggression.

This study explores how anxious attachment moderates the relationship between hostile sexism and online violence in adolescent and young adults' partners. Two hundred thirty heterosexual couples (total n = 460) participated in a dyadic design study. Both partners answered a questionnaire about online violence, hostile sexism, and anxious attachment. Results show that both members' hostile sexism positively correlates with the perpetration and victimization of online violence in boys and girls, but not in all the dimensions. However, actor-hostile sexism has a greater effect on both perpetration and victimization for both members than partner-hostile sexism, except for control perpetration and victimization of girls. Results also show that the actor-anxious attachment positively moderated the relationship between their hostile sexism and perpetration and victimization for both members, only when it was higher than average, and negatively when it was lower. In girls, when the anxious attachment is high, the relationship between the boys' hostile sexism and the girls' direct aggression perpetration becomes weaker. The opposite occurs between the boys' hostile sexism and boys' direct aggression perpetrated when their girlfriends' anxious attachment increases. In sum, anxious attachment and hostile actor and partner sexism play an important role in online violence in adolescent couples. Therefore, the protective effect of low levels of anxious attachment should be studied among other psychosocial factors and online violence.

Three studies (N = 860) examined whether the pleasure of revenge predicts both vengeful and benevolent motivations toward the provocateur. Across all studies, self-reported positive affect was higher, whereas self-reported negative affect was lower after an instance of revenge. Furthermore, the revenge-related positive affect predicted greater subsequent vengeful and benevolent motivations toward the provocateur (but more consistently the former). These findings replicate and extend previous research on affect-improving qualities of revenge. They allow for a more nuanced understanding of the reinforcing nature of vengeful pleasure. Moreover, they suggest that the pleasure of revenge might be harnessed to promote forgiveness.

Spitefulness has been defined as the willingness to cause some kind of harm to other people, even if this action does not bring any benefit and causes harm to herself. Given its relationship with a multitude of antisocial behaviors, interest in studying this trait has been growing and it was in 2014 when the first scale to measure it was validated: the Spitefulness Scale. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of its Spanish version. In a sample of 758 participants (M = 31.44; SD = 12.91; 72.80% female), the Spitefulness Scale, the Short Dark Triad, the Assessment of Sadistic Personality, the HEXACO-60, and the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling were administered. Results showed the unidimensionality of the scale, adequate reliability indices, and construct validity, evidenced by positive relationships with the Dark Tetrad traits and trolling behavior. Additionally, the analysis revealed significant gender differences, with males scoring higher on spitefulness. This Spanish validation allows us to establish a solid basis for cross-cultural comparisons. Understanding this trait, considered like the Dark Tetrad traits an antagonistic personality trait, has important implications for understanding the interpersonal and social dynamics. Given that spitefulness is closely related to aggressive behaviors, it is essential to study it to understand the underlying mechanisms of aggression and hostility in social interactions.

There is accumulating longitudinal evidence that popularity predicts relative increases in adolescents' aggression. Yet, we know very little about the conditions that motivate popular youth to engage in coercive behaviors. In this study, we evaluated whether popular adolescents would show elevated levels of aggression over time when they felt powerless and had low prestige (respect and admiration) among their peers. In addition, we examined whether popular youth would gain a greater sense of power and prestige over time via aggressive means. Participants were 419 fifth (M = 10.91 years, SD = 0.42) and eighth graders (M = 13.95 years, SD = 0.43) who participated twice over a 1-year interval. Popularity was measured at Time 1, while the other central constructs, such as direct forms of aggression, sense of power and prestige, were assessed at Times 1 and 2. Our findings demonstrate that aggression might be a threat-triggered response by popular youth to protect their ego and/or resolve the discrepancy between their position in the hierarchy and what that role should afford them. Moreover, popular youth feel the greatest sense of power over time when they abstain from resorting to aggressive means. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Previous research has established a connection between parental control and bullying. However, the nuanced relationships involving different combinations of psychological control (PPC) and behavioral control (PBC), along with traditional and cyberbullying, remain ambiguous. Thus, this study investigated the associations of specific parental control dimensions and profiles with traditional and cyberbullying, focusing on the potential mediating mechanism of moral disengagement. A sample of 831 students (48.4% were female; M= 18.98 years; SD = 1.08) was analyzed. Through latent profile analysis, three control profiles emerged: low PPC and PBC (40.31%), low PPC and high PBC (29.00%), and high PPC and PBC (30.69%). The findings indicated a positive correlation between PPC and traditional/cyberbullying. Moral disengagement mediated the relationship between PPC/PBC and traditional/cyberbullying. Particularly, high PPC and PBC were linked to cyberbullying. Moral disengagement mediated the relationship between high PPC and PBC and traditional/cyberbullying. These insights provide valuable empirical data for developing bullying interventions that consider parental control and moral disengagement.

Cyber aggression is prevalent among emerging adults and is associated with a range of mental and behavioral issues. One particularly concerning outcome is the widespread presence of suicidal ideation in this group, which poses a significant threat to their life. However, the specific impact of cyber aggression on suicidal ideation and the longitudinal mechanisms remains unclear. Hence, this study sought to address these gaps by applying the general aggression model (GAM). The investigation utilized three-wave longitudinal data with 6-month intervals from a large sample of Chinese emerging adults (N = 1568; 54.7% female; M = 19.70 [SD = 1.44], ranging from 17 to 26 years). The random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was employed to explore the roles of depressive symptoms and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) between cyber aggression and suicidal ideation at both the between- and within-person levels. The findings indicated that, at the between-person level, there were trait-like associations between depressive symptoms and cyber aggression, NSSI, and suicidal ideation. At the within-person level, cyber aggression exhibited unidirectional positive cross-lagged effects on depressive symptoms and NSSI, and could subsequently indirectly lead to suicidal ideation via the contemporaneous associations from depressive symptoms and NSSI to suicidal ideation. These results not only align with GAM but also shed light on the underlying mechanisms linking cyber aggression to suicidal ideation. Also, the findings underscore the significance of maintaining a positive network environment for the well-being of all internet users even cyber aggression perpetrators.

Indirect aggression is commonly used in adulthood, but most researchers have focused on this behavior in romantic relationships or from an intrasexual competition perspective. Therefore, we aimed to understand the social characteristics and mental health correlates of indirect aggression by combining perspectives from developmental psychopathology and evolutionary psychology. We examined: (1) whether social characteristics (social comparison, hypercompetitiveness) contributed to indirect aggression (perpetration, victimization) and (2) whether there were indirect effects from indirect aggression (perpetration, victimization) to mental health difficulties through loneliness. In a cross-sectional sample of 475 young adults (57.7% women, 51.6% White, M = 20.2, SD = 2.18), path analyses revealed that social comparison predicted indirect aggression victimization, which indirectly predicted mental health difficulties (depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms) through loneliness. In contrast, indirect aggression perpetration was only predicted by hypercompetitiveness. The findings highlight that reframing cognitions associated with social comparison could help prevent indirect aggression and mental health difficulties among young people.

Students around the globe still experience bullying daily. Teachers play a key role in supporting victimized students and they could do so using their classroom seating arrangement. Common teacher strategies are to separate victims and bullies and to seat victims close to supportive others, but research has not examined whether these strategies support victims' wellbeing. Therefore, the current study tested an intervention in which victims in experimental classrooms were seated far away from their bullies and next to their best friends, whereas a random seating arrangement was implemented in control classrooms. The underlying reasoning was that victims would experience a sense of safety next to their best friend and to limit bullies' opportunities to harass the victim. The outcomes were classroom comfort, internalizing problems, academic engagement, and victimization frequency. We used a sample of 1746 Dutch upper elementary school students (M = 10.21) of whom 250 students reported to be chronically and frequently victimized (M = 9.96 years). Ethical and practical reasons rendered the conditions similar regarding victims' distances to their bullies. Consequently, the intervention in the end tested the effect of victims sitting next to their best friend. Several mixed-effects models showed that no support was found for the effectiveness of this intervention. Additional exploratory analyses testing the effect of victims' continuous distances to their bullies on their wellbeing also found no effects. These findings suggest that changing victims', bullies', and best friends' seats do not improve victims' classroom wellbeing. Alternative explanations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.

Recent theories of socio-moral development assume that humans evolved a capacity to evaluate others' social actions in different kinds of interactions. Prior infant studies found both reaching and visual preferences for the prosocial over the antisocial agents. However, whether the attribution of either positive or negative valence to agents' actions involved in an aggressive chasing interaction can be inferred by both reaching behaviors and visual attention deployment (i.e., disengagement of visual attention) is still an open question. Here we presented 7-month-old infants (N = 92) with events displaying an aggressive chasing interaction. By using preferential reaching and an attentional task (i.e., overlap paradigm), we assessed whether and how infants evaluate aggressive chasing interactions. The results demonstrated that young infants prefer to reach the victim over the aggressor, but neither agent affects visual attention. Moreover, such reaching preferences emerged only when dynamic cues and emotional face-like features were congruent with agents' social roles. Overall, these findings suggested that infants' evaluations of aggressive interactions are based on infants' sensitivity to some kinematic cues that characterized agents' actions and, especially, to the congruency between such motions and the face-like emotional expressions of the agents.

Findings from a paucity of research suggest that need for cognition (NFC) is negatively correlated with trait aggression. The correlational nature of the data juxtaposed with the reliance on assessing trait aggression negates causal claims regarding this relationship. The objective of the current research to expand our understanding of the relationship between NFC and aggression in the following ways: (1) focus on state, rather than trait, aggressive behavior, (2) examine the role of provocation, and (3) test the mediating influence of state anger and revenge motives. Our study had US emerging adult participants randomly assigned to be provoked or not before completing measures of anger, revenge motives, and aggression. Results showed that only revenge motives mediated the relationship between NFC and aggression, which was found to be significant only for provoked participants. Results are discussed in theoretical and practical implications.

Theory and evidence suggest that attitudes toward violence are relevant for the explanation, prediction, and reduction of violent behavior. The purpose of the present study was to adapt a measure of violent attitudes-the Evaluation of Violence Questionnaire (EVQ)-for use in Portugal, test the cross-country equivalence, and test the validity of both versions. We found the expected one-factor structure, high internal consistency, and cross-country measurement invariance for the Portuguese and original EVQ with men in Portugal (N = 320) and Canada (N = 298). We also found the expected pattern of correlations with measures of more versus less theoretically relevant constructs: both versions of the EVQ showed the strongest correlations with overall aggression and reactive aggression; slightly lower correlations with proactive aggression; negative correlations with self-control; and the smallest correlations with self-esteem. Our results support the equivalence, reliability, and validity of the Portuguese and original versions of the EVQ.

Further research is needed to clarify the association of the different forms of bullying with social anxiety and social withdrawal over time in adolescents. This two-wave panel study with a 1-year time lag (October 2021-October 2022) examined the cross-lagged relationships between bullying victimization and bullying perpetration, social anxiety (i.e., fear or distress in social situations), and social withdrawal (i.e., consistent, and deliberate social solitude). Participants were 485 middle school students (234 girls) attending the seventh or eighth grade at Time 1 (T1) (M = 12.67 years, SD = 1.14 years). Social anxiety and social withdrawal were assessed using subscales of the Social and Emotional Competencies Evaluation Questionnaire. Bullying perpetration and bullying victimization were assessed using the Bullying and Cyberbullying Behavior Questionnaire-Short Form. The within-wave associations between the study variables were similar at T1 and Time 2 (T2), with the exception that the association between bullying perpetration and social anxiety was much weaker at T1 than at T2. The results of the path analysis showed that T1 bullying perpetration predicted T2 social anxiety, and that T1 bullying victimization predicted T2 social withdrawal. We also found a reciprocal relationship between social anxiety and social withdrawal. These findings highlight the importance of preventive and remediation interventions to reduce social anxiety in adolescents who engage in and experience bullying behavior.

Aggression is one of the public social issues affecting campus harmony and stability, and social exclusion is an important interpersonal contextual factor among many factors affecting aggression. However, studies examining the influence of social exclusion on aggression and its mediating mechanism are not systematic enough. Based on the general aggression model (GAM), we intend to explore the role of hostile attribution bias (HAB) in both trait and state levels of social exclusion, which leads to aggression through a combination of questionnaire and experimental methods. Study 1 surveyed 388 current high school students (M = 16.09, SD = 1.01) and found that HAB mediates the relationship between long-term social exclusion (trait level) and aggression tendency. Study 2 experimented with 181 high school students (M = 16.95, SD = 1.13) to examine whether short-term social exclusion (state level) after initiating the Cyberball paradigm could still influence aggressive behavior through the mediating role of HAB. Results found that the mediating role of HAB still holds. The findings of the study further enrich the GAM and have important implications for a more targeted approach to aggression prevention and intervention.

Aggression refers to a wide range of behaviors with lasting individual and societal consequences. Recurrent, unplanned aggressive behavior is the core diagnostic criterion for intermittent explosive disorder (IED). In this study, we compared two behavioral measures of aggression in the laboratory: the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) and the Point-Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP). This sample (n = 528) included community participants who met DSM-5 criteria for IED (n = 156), met DSM-5 criteria for a nonaggressive psychiatric disorder (n = 205), or did not meet DSM-5 criteria for any psychiatric disorder (n = 167). All participants completed the TAP, a single-session PSAP, and relevant self-report measures. MANOVA analyses demonstrated differences between IED participants and nonaggressive participants; however, these group differences were no longer significant for the PSAP after including demographic variables. Correlation analyses found that the TAP and PSAP were positively related to one another and the composite variables associated with aggressive behavior (i.e., history of aggression, impulsivity, and propensity to experience anger) and; dependent correlations revealed that past aggression and trait anger were more strongly related to the TAP. Differences in TAP and PSAP outcomes may be partially attributed to operationalizations of aggression and methods of aggression and provocation. Further, as aggressive and nonaggressive participants differed on the PSAP somewhat mirroring the TAP, our results add to growing evidence of the validity of a single-session PSAP; further research is needed to fully establish single-session PSAP as a laboratory aggression task compared to the multi-session PSAP.

In this study, we sought to capture implicit attitudes toward violence by administering response latency measures. We then examined their associations with explicit (e.g., assessed with self-report) attitudes toward violence and self-reported violent behavior in a combined sample of males from a Canadian university and males from the general community (N = 251; 156 students and 95 community members). To date, there have been mixed findings regarding these associations; some of this inconsistency may be due to the difficulty in accurately conceptualizing and assessing implicit attitudes toward violence. Therefore, we administered three response latency measures to assess this construct: a violence evaluation implicit association test (VE-IAT), a personalized VE-IAT (P-VE-IAT), and a violence evaluation relational responding task, along with three self-report measures of explicit attitudes toward violence and three self-report measures of violent behavior. More positive implicit attitudes toward violence were related to more positive explicit attitudes toward violence (for VE-IAT and P-VE-IAT; r = 0.18 to 0.22), greater likelihood of violence (for VE-IAT; r = 0.18 and for P-VE-IAT; r = 0.16), and greater propensity for violence (for the VE-IAT; r = 0.16). All measures of explicit attitudes toward violence and violent behavior were moderately to strongly associated with one another (r = 0.42 to 0.81). Furthermore, implicit attitudes toward violence explained additional variance in some violent outcomes above explicit attitudes alone. Our findings suggest that scores on certain reaction time measures are important for understanding likelihood and propensity for violence, especially when combined with explicit attitude measures.