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Indirect aggression, anxiety, and empathy: Disaggregating between and within person longitudinal associations during childhood and adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Ann H. Farrell Open the ORCID record for Ann H. Farrell [Opens in a new window]  and
Tracy Vaillancourt Open the ORCID record for Tracy Vaillancourt [Opens in a new window]
Ann H. Farrell
Affiliation:
Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Tracy Vaillancourt*
Affiliation:
Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
*
Corresponding author: Tracy Vaillancourt, email: tracy.vaillancourt@uottawa.ca
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Abstract

Although indirectly aggressive behavior and anxiety symptoms can co-occur, it is unclear whether anxiety is an antecedent or outcome of indirect aggression at the individual level and whether other personality traits can contribute to these longitudinal associations. Therefore, the between- and within-person associations among indirect aggression, anxiety symptoms, and empathic concern were examined across adolescence from ages 11 to 16 in a cohort of individuals followed annually (N = 700; 52.9% girls; 76.0% White) controlling for direct aggression and demographic variables. Results of autoregressive latent trajectory models with structured residuals supported an acting out model at the within-person level. Specifically, anxiety symptoms positively predicted indirect aggression and indirect aggression negatively predicted empathic concern at each adjacent time point. These findings suggest that methods of reducing worries about the self and increasing healthy self-confidence could prevent indirect aggression and help build concern and compassion toward others.

Keywords

adolescenceanxiety symptomsempathic concernindirect aggressionlongitudinal
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2023 , pp. 228 - 240
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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