Kenneth A. Dodge

A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment.

Research on the relation between social information processing and social adjustment in childhood is reviewed and interpreted within the framework of a reformulated model of human performance and social exchange. This reformulation proves to assimilate almost all previous studies and is a useful heuristic device for organizing the field. The review suggests that overwhelming evidence supports the empirical relation between characteristic processing styles and childrens social adjustment, with some aspects of processing (e.g., hostile attributional biases, intention cue detection accuracy, response access patterns, and evaluation of response outcomes) likely to be causal of behaviors that lead to social status and other aspects (e.g., perceived self-competence) likely to be responsive to peer status

Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective.

Childrens sociometric status was conceptualized in terms of independent dimensions of social preference and social impact. In Experiment 1, peer perceptual correlates of these dimensions were investigated with children in Grades 3, 5, and 8. Social preference was highly positively related to cooperativeness, supportiveness, and physical attractiveness and negatively related to disruptiveness and aggression. Social impact was related to active, salient behaviors of both positive and negative valence. Whereas the correlates were found to be similar at each grade level, greater proportions of the variance in these dimensions could be predicted at the younger ages than at the older ages. In Experiment 2, these dimensions were used to select children into five sociometric status groups, called popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average. Peer perceptions of the behavioral correlates of these groups were solicited and found to reveal distinct profiles. A previously unidentified group of controversial children was perceived as disruptive and aggressive (like the rejected group), but also as social leaders (like popular children). It is suggested that researchers consider controversial children as a distinct group in future behavioral and epidemiological studies.

Social-information-processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children's peer groups.

We examined social-information-processing mechanisms (e.g., hostile attributional biases and intention-cue detection deficits) in chronic reactive and proactive aggressive behavior in childrens peer groups. In Study 1, a teacher-rating instrument was developed to assess these behaviors in elementary school children (N = 259). Reactive and proactive scales were found to be internally consistent, and factor analyses partially supported convergent and discriminant validities. In Study 2, behavioral correlates of these forms of aggression were examined through assessments by peers (N = 339). Both types of aggression related to social rejection, but only proactively aggressive boys were also viewed as leaders and as having a sense of humor. In Study 3, we hypothesized that reactive aggression (but not proactive aggression) would occur as a function of hostile attributional biases and intention-cue detection deficits. Four groups of socially rejected boys (reactive aggressive, proactive aggressive, reactive-proactive aggressive, and nonaggressive) and a group of average boys were presented with a series of hypothetical videorecorded vignettes depicting provocations by peers and were asked to interpret the intentions of the provocateur (N = 117). Only the two reactive-aggressive groups displayed biases and deficits in interpretations. In Study 4, attributional biases and deficits were found to be positively correlated with the rate of reactive aggression (but not proactive aggression) displayed in free play with peers (N = 127). These studies supported the hypothesis that attributional biases and deficits are related to reactive aggression but not to proactive aggression.

Social cognition and children's aggressive behavior.

DODGE, KENNETH A. Social Cognition and Childrens Aggressive Behavior. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 162-170. Aggressive and nonaggressive boys from grades 2, 4, and 6 were exposed to a frustrating negative outcome which was instigated by an unknown peer who had acted with either a hostile intent, a benign intent, or an ambiguous intent. Videotaped behavioral responses constituted the dependent measures. Contrary to a hypothesis, aggressive boys did not display any failure to integrate intent cues into their behavioral reactions to the negative consequences, nor were there any significant main or interaction effects for age of subject. All groups responded with more aggression in the hostile condition than in the benign condition. Aggressive and nonaggressive subjects differed only in the ambiguous condition. Here aggressive subjects responded as if the peer had acted with a hostile intent. Nonaggressive subjects responded as if the peer had acted with a benign intent. The hypothesis that aggressive children respond to ambiguous-intention-negative-consequence situations with aggression because they infer a hostile intention was supported by a follow-up study using hypothetical episodes as stimuli. Results of this second study reflect the increased significance of the social reputation of the aggressive child with increasing age. The total pattern of results suggests a picture of the aggressive child being caught up in a spiraling cycle of reputation and behavior.

Developmental Trajectories of Childhood Disruptive Behaviors and Adolescent Delinquency: A Six-Site, Cross-National Study

This study used data from 6 sites and 3 countries to examine the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood and to analyze its linkage to violent and nonviolent offending outcomes in adolescence. The results indicate that among boys there is continuity in problem behavior from childhood to adolescence and that such continuity is especially acute when early problem behavior takes the form of physical aggression. Chronic physical aggression during the elementary school years specifically increases the risk for continued physical violence as well as other nonviolent forms of delinquency during adolescence. However, this conclusion is reserved primarily for boys, because the results indicate no clear linkage between childhood physical aggression and adolescent offending among female samples despite notable similarities across male and female samples in the developmental course of physical aggression in childhood.

A biopsychosocial model of the development of chronic conduct problems in adolescence.

A biopsychosocial model of the development of adolescent chronic conduct problems is presented and supported through a review of empirical findings. This model posits that biological dispositions and sociocultural contexts place certain children at risk in early life but that life experiences with parents, peers, and social institutions increment and mediate this risk. A transactional developmental model is best equipped to describe the emergence of chronic antisocial behavior across time. Reciprocal influences among dispositions, contexts, and life experiences lead to recursive iterations across time that exacerbate or diminish antisocial development. Cognitive and emotional processes within the child, including the acquisition of knowledge and social-information-processing patterns, mediate the relation between life experiences and conduct problem outcomes. Implications for prevention research and public policy are noted.

Reactive and proactive aggression in school children and psychiatrically impaired chronically assaultive youth.

The authors proposed that reactively aggressive and proactively aggressive types of antisocial youth would differ in developmental histories, concurrent adjustment, and social information-processing patterns. In Study 1, 585 boys and girls classified into groups called reactive aggressive, proactive aggressive, pervasively aggressive (combined type), and nonaggressive revealed distinct profiles. Only the reactive aggressive groups demonstrated histories of physical abuse and early onset of problems, adjustment problems in peer relations, and inadequate encoding and problem-solving processing patterns. Only the proactive aggressive groups demonstrated a processing pattern of anticipating positive outcomes for aggressing. In Study 2, 50 psychiatrically impaired chronically violent boys classified as reactively violent or proactively violent demonstrated differences in age of onset of problem behavior, adjustment problems, and processing problems.

The Cook-medley hostility scale: item content and ability to predict survival.

&NA; Previous studies have identified the MMPI‐based Cook and Medley hostility scale (Ho) as a predictor of health outcomes. To achieve a better understanding of the construct measured by this scale, Ho items were classified on an a priori basis. Six subsets were identified: Cynicism, Hostile Attributions, Hostile Affect, Aggressive Responding, Social Avoidance, and Other. Study 1 examined the correlations of these subsets with scales of the NEO Personality Inventory in two samples of undergraduates. Good convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated, but there was some evidence that items in the Social Avoidance and Other categories reflect constructs other than hostility. Study 2 examined the ability of the Ho scale and the item subsets to predict the 1985 survival of 118 lawyers who had completed the MMPI in 1956 and 1957. As in previous studies, those with high scores had poorer survival (chi 2 = 6.37, p = 0.012). Unlike previous studies, the relation between Ho scores and survival was linear. Cynicism, Hostile Affect, and Aggressive Responding subsets were related to survival, whereas the other subsets were not. The sum of the three predictive subsets, with a chi 2 of 9.45 (p = 0.002), was a better predictor than the full Ho scale, suggesting that it may be possible to refine the scale and achieve an even more effective measure of those aspects of hostility that are deleterious to health.

Physical discipline among African American and European American mothers: Links to children's externalizing behaviors.

The aim of this study was to test whether the relation between physical discipline and child aggression was moderated by ethnic-group status. A sample of 466 European American and 100 African American children from a broad range of socioeconomic levels were followed from kindergarten through 3rd grade. Mothers reported their use of physical discipline in interviews and questionnaires, and mothers, teachers, and peers rated childrens externalizing problems annually. The interaction between ethnic status and discipline was significant for teacher- and peer-rated externalizing scores; physical discipline was associated with higher externalizing scores, but only among European American children. These findings provide evidence that the link between physical punishment and child aggression may be culturally specific.

Peer Rejection and Social Information-Processing Factors in the Development of Aggressive Behavior Problems in Children

The relation between social rejection and growth in antisocial behavior was investigated. In Study 1,259 boys and girls (34% African American) were followed from Grades 1 to 3 (ages 6-8 years) to Grades 5 to 7 (ages 10-12 years). Early peer rejection predicted growth in aggression. In Study 2,585 boys and girls (16% African American) were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 (ages 5-8 years), and findings were replicated. Furthermore, early aggression moderated the effect of rejection, such that rejection exacerbated antisocial development only among children initially disposed toward aggression. In Study 3, social information-processing patterns measured in Study 1 were found to mediate partially the effect of early rejection on later aggression. In Study 4, processing patterns measured in Study 2 replicated the mediation effect. Findings are integrated into a recursive model of antisocial development.