Antisocial Behavior 1 Running head: REGULATION, PEERS, AND

33 Pages·2006·0.15 MB·English

by  Chris Trentacosta

Antisocial Behavior 1
Running head: REGULATION, PEERS, AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Emotion Dysregulation, Peer Rejection, and the Development of Antisocial Behavior in
Adolescent Boys
Christopher J. Trentacosta
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Daniel S. Shaw
University of Pittsburgh

Christopher Trentacosta, Ph. D.
4107 Sennott Square
Pitt Mother-Child Project
210 S Bouquet Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
phone: [phone]
email: [email protected]
Antisocial Behavior 2
Abstract
The present study examined relationships among emotion dysregulation, peer rejection, and
antisocial behavior in a sample of boys from low-income families. Following a developmental
psychopathology perspective, emotion dysregulation was measured in early childhood, peer
rejection was assessed during middle childhood, and self reports of antisocial behavior were
obtained during early adolescence. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine
longitudinal relations among these constructs, with results suggesting associations between early
childhood emotion dysregulation and middle childhood peer rejection and between peer rejection
and antisocial behavior. Furthermore, indirect effects of early emotion dysregulation on
adolescent antisocial behavior were found through peer rejection. Results are discussed from a
developmental psychopathology perspective with implications for early prevention and
intervention.

Keywords: emotion dysregulation, peer rejection, antisocial behavior, delinquency,
developmental psychopathology

Acknowledgements: The research reported in this article was supported by a grant to the second
author from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 50907). We thank the staff of the Pitt
Mother & Child Project and the study families for making the research possible.
Antisocial Behavior 3
Emotion Dysregulation, Peer Rejection, and the Development of Antisocial Behavior in
Adolescent Boys
Aggression and other forms of overt externalizing symptoms reach their peak between
ages two to three years. However, some children continue to show disruptive behavior problems
across childhood and, by early adolescence, begin to engage in violent offenses and other forms
of serious antisocial behavior (Coie & Dodge, 1998). Antisocial behavior during early
adolescence sometimes leads to arrest and incarceration later in adolescence and into adulthood.
More generally, early antisocial behavior can place adolescents at risk for mental health
problems, substance dependence, and work problems into adulthood (Moffitt, Caspi, Harrington,
& Milne, 2002). Due in part to the personal, economic, and social toll that antisocial behavior
takes on individuals and society, predictors of externalizing symptoms and more serious forms of
antisocial behavior have received extensive examination. The present study was designed to
examine predictors of early adolescent antisocial behavior from a developmental
psychopathology perspective.
The developmental psychopathology perspective suggests that deviations from normative
processes at earlier stages of development increase the likelihood of psychopathology later in
development (Sroufe, 1997). Furthermore, each developmental stage presents key tasks and
challenges. In early childhood, one key challenge is the attainment of emotional self-regulation
(Kopp, 1989). In middle childhood, developing and maintaining positive peer relationships
becomes a critical element of positive adaptation (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998).
Supporting the developmental psychopathology perspective, difficulties with self-regulation and
peer relationships are predictive of a variety of psychosocial outcomes, including externalizing
problems in early and middle childhood (Eisenberg et al. 2001; Laird, Jordan, Dodge, Pettit, &
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Bates, 2001) and antisocial behavior during adolescence (Coie & Dodge, 1998). However,
previous research has not simultaneously examined the influences of emotion dysregulation and
peer rejection during developmental periods when deviations may be most meaningful to later
adaptation. In the present study we considered how emotion dysregulation in early childhood and
peer rejection in middle childhood might lead to subsequent antisocial behavior during early
adolescence.
Emotion Dysregulation in Early Childhood
Soon after birth, infants are capable of reflexive forms of self-regulation (e.g., head
turning; Kopp, 1989). Across infancy and the early toddler years, the ability to utilize self-
regulatory techniques such as effortful control increases, but young toddlers sometimes rely on
caregivers in particularly stressful situations (Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000; Kopp, 1989).
As children move from toddlerhood to the preschool years, their reliance on caregiver assistance
decreases, and their relative proficiency with effortful control promotes adaptive regulation of
emotion (Denham, 1998; Kochanska et al., 2000). For example, when confronted with a
distressing event, young preschoolers are often able to actively distract themselves from the
distressing stimuli or focus on more pleasant aspects of the situation (Denham, 1998). By middle
and late childhood, purely cognitive means of coping predominate, but it is by the end of the
preschool period that children are first expected to gain mastery of basic behavioral self-
regulatory skills.
Supporting the importance of the development of emotional self-regulation during the
preschool period, children who are unable to satisfactorily regulate their emotions demonstrate
numerous problematic outcomes. Preschool children who utilized forms of venting or other poor
means of coping during emotionally challenging circumstances had lower concurrent levels of
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social competence as rated by their teachers and peers (Denham et al., 2003). Similarly,
preschool children who either expressed no emotion or expressed exclusively negative emotions
while viewing videotaped vignettes demonstrated higher levels of externalizing behavior
problems than their peers both concurrently and at a first grade follow-up (Cole, Zahn-Waxler,
Fox, Usher, & Welsh, 1996).
There is particularly strong support for associations between assessments of children’s
dysregulation during frustrating and challenging situations and externalizing problems during
early and middle childhood. For example, when engaged in an anger-eliciting game, elementary
school children’s rough nonverbal behaviors predicted concurrent peer nominations of
aggression (Dearing et al., 2002), and their angry nonverbal behaviors and skin conductance
reactivity predicted concurrent teacher ratings of reactive aggression (Hubbard et al., 2002). In
the preschool period, boys, but not girls, who displayed more anger after experiencing a
disappointment had more concurrent externalizing behavior problems (Cole, Zahn-Waxler, &
Smith, 1994). Similarly, in an earlier report using data from the present study, a tendency to
focus on the desired object and less use of self-regulatory distraction during a frustration task at
age 3.5 was associated with teacher reports of externalizing problems three years later (Gilliom
et al., 2002).
Although the relations between emotion dysregulation and externalizing problems are
well-established, few studies have examined individual differences in emotional regulation in
early childhood as a predictor of externalizing psychopathology during early adolescence (but
see Moffitt & Caspi, 2001 for an example). Furthermore, past research has not examined the role
that school-age peer relationships may play in pathways leading from early emotion
dysregulation to antisocial behavior in adolescence. The present study was designed to fill this
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gap by examining the role of peer status during middle childhood in relation to associations
between early emotion regulation and antisocial behavior during early adolescence.
Peer Rejection in Middle Childhood
Even in infancy, preferential social behavior can be observed toward peers, and as infants
become toddlers they direct a large amount of their social behavior toward a small number of
peers in a group (Howes, 1987). In preschool, children engage in sociodramatic play with friends
and prefer children with similar characteristics or interests. However, these friendships are
generally not very stable, and preschoolers’ conceptions of friendships tend to be rooted in a
specific activity occurring at a given moment (Rubin et al., 1998). It is not until middle
childhood that peer relationships are seen as relatively reciprocal and stable, and descriptions of
friendships more frequently involve shared feelings, values and loyalty (Rubin et al., 1998).
Thus, the majority of empirical research on peer relations, peer acceptance, and friendship has
been conducted during middle and late childhood. This sizable body of research demonstrates
consistent relations between peer acceptance, popularity, and friendships and positive outcomes
such as academic achievement and psychological adjustment (e.g., Wentzel & Caldwell, 1997).
Just as peer acceptance and friendship are markers of positive adjustment, peer rejection
is often an indicator of maladjustment and risk for later psychopathology. Peer rejection in
middle childhood can be particularly damaging. Although dominance hierarchies exist in early
childhood peer groups, children are generally unable to describe who is at the top or bottom of
the hierarchy (Rubin et al., 1998). In contrast, during middle childhood children are often acutely
aware of their status within the social group. Children who are rejected by peers are often
aggressive, but social withdrawal is also a relatively consistent correlate of peer rejection (Rubin
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et al., 1998). Over time, rejected children are at greater risk for problems such as school drop out
and antisocial behavior (Ollendick, Weist, Borden, & Greene, 1992).
Because peer rejection is a consistent risk factor for a wide range of negative outcomes,
there is an extensive literature examining predictors of peer rejection. Previously examined
predictors include caregiver-child attachment, child temperament, parenting behaviors, and
social skills (Rubin et al., 1998). In the present study, we examined emotion dysregulation as a
predictor of peer rejection. Based on the extant literature (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 1995), children
who are better able to manage their emotions in distressing situations would be expected to more
likely master the social behaviors and skills necessary to promote effective social relationships.
Conversely, children who have difficulty managing their negative emotions would be more
likely to express their behavior in destructive ways such as aggression. In addition, the mere
presence of frequent displays of unregulated negative emotion may be upsetting and bothersome
to peers and lead to rejection (Maszk, Eisenberg, & Guthrie, 1999). In support of these
predictions, previous research has demonstrated positive concurrent relations between
constructive forms of regulation and sociometric status and negative concurrent relations
between aggressive forms of regulation and sociometric status during preschool, especially
among boys (Eisenberg et al., 1993). Longitudinal studies have also supported relations between
emotion dysregulation and peer status over short periods of time (e.g., Maszk et al., 1999), but
previous work has not examined these associations across early and middle childhood. Thus, in
the present study, emotion dysregulation in early childhood was expected to predict peer
rejection in middle childhood.
In turn, we expected peer rejection to be associated with antisocial behavior in early
adolescence. Not surprisingly, peer rejection is a consistent predictor of antisocial behavior, even
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in longitudinal studies spanning many years (Coie & Dodge, 1998). More strikingly, many
studies show a unique effect of peer rejection on the development of aggression and antisocial
behavior into adolescence beyond the effect of earlier externalizing problems.
As described above, emotion dysregulation is also a consistent predictor of externalizing
problems in early and middle childhood, with fewer studies conducted on more serious forms of
antisocial activities during adolescence. In one such study (Moffitt & Caspi, 2001), difficult
temperament characterized by behavioral undercontrol, emotional lability, and impulsivity at age
3 was associated with higher levels of antisocial behavior in adolescence. However, this relation
was found only for children with “life-course persistent” forms of antisocial behavior (i.e.,
elevated levels of antisocial behavior in childhood as well as adolescence).
Following a developmental psychopathology perspective (Cicchetti, 2006), incompetence
in a developmentally-salient task in early childhood would be expected to lead to incompetence
in a developmentally-salient task of middle childhood, which would then predict incompetence
in early adolescence. We examined whether early emotion dysregulation predicted difficulties in
the social milieu in middle childhood. Because the formation of stable, positive relationships
with peers who share goals and values is a key task of middle childhood, peer rejection was
selected as the indicator of middle childhood incompetence. In turn, we examined whether peer
rejection during middle childhood predicted poor adaptation during early adolescence. Antisocial
behavior was selected as the indicator of poor early adolescent adaptation because young
adolescent males are often faced with peer pressure to commit delinquent acts, and early
involvement in antisocial behavior is a robust predictor of poor outcomes into adulthood (e.g.,
Moffitt et al., 2002). Particularly over a long period of study, early childhood incompetence
would not necessarily directly predict maladjustment in early adolescence but would set the stage
Antisocial Behavior 9
for developmental deviation leading to further maladjustment. Thus, we did not necessarily
expect emotion dysregulation in early childhood to directly predict antisocial behavior in early
adolescence, but we examined whether there were also direct relations between these constructs.
Method
Participants
Participants in the present study were 111 boys originally recruited into the Pittsburgh
Mother & Child Project (PMCP) through Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programs in the
Pittsburgh metropolitan area (Shaw, Gilliom, Ingoldsby, & Nagin, 2003). Recruitment occurred
at WIC centers across two years, and boys were between 6 and 17 months old when their
families were initially approached to enter the study. The initial PMCP assessment occurred
when boys were 18 months old, and 310 boys completed this initial assessment out of 421
families initially approached to participate in the study. This initial sample was 51% European
American, 39% African American, .3% Hispanic, and 9% from other ethnicities. The mean
Hollingshead (1979) socioeconomic status was 23.32 (SD = 9.29), which represents the working
class nature of the PMCP sample.
PMCP follow-up assessments occurred regularly during childhood and into early
adolescence, with attrition being generally low throughout the 10.5 year duration of the study.
For example, data were available on 302 boys at the 24-month assessment (97%), 282 at the 42-
month assessment (91%), and 89% with assessments at ages 10, 11, or 12. During the 9th year of
the PMCP, participating boys were invited to attend a two-week summer camp. Due to the time
commitment needed to participate in the summer camp, 147 families from the original sample of
310 permitted their boys to attend the summer camp. Additionally, because original recruitment
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of the sample took place over two years but the summer camp occurred during a single summer,
boys’ ages ranged from 8.2 to 10.7 years (M = 9.5, SD = .55) during the summer camp.
111 of the boys with self-report antisocial behavior data at age 12 also completed the age
3.5 and summer camp assessments. Boys with complete data were compared with boys who
were initially recruited into the PMCP but did not have complete data for the present study. T-
tests revealed no significant differences on maternal education, family income, and
socioeconomic status collected at 18 months or maternal reports of boys’ externalizing problems
at 24 and 42 months. Furthermore, there were no significant differences on the emotion
dysregulation, peer rejection, and antisocial behavior measures used in the present study.
Procedure and Measures
The PMCP included laboratory and/or home visits at assessments when boys were 1.5, 2,
3.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 12 years of age, and the summer camp was conducted during the
summer of 2000. For the present study, emotion dysregulation was measured at the age 3.5
assessment, peer rejection was measured on two occasions at the summer camp assessment, and
antisocial behavior was measured at the age 12 assessment.
Emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation was measured during a laboratory visit
using the cookie task (Marvin, 1977). This task is intended to measure negative affect and
regulatory skill by requiring that the child wait for a desirable outcome while in an environment
lacking much stimulation. Boys were in a room that had been cleared of all toys while their
mothers completed a series of assessment measures. After finding out from the mother about the
child’s preference for three different cookies, the mother was asked to keep a clear bag
containing the cookie of choice in clear view of her child but outside of his reach. This procedure