Parental Attachment and Proactive-Reactive Aggression in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Self-Control and Perspective Taking

INTRODUCTION: Identifying risk and protective factors of aggressive behavior during adolescence is beneficial for the intervention and prevention treatments. Although studies show that attachment quality is closely related to aggression, the underlying psychological mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the links of parental attachment with proactive and reactive aggression and to examine the mediating role of perspective taking and self-control among Chinese adolescents. METHODS: A cluster sampling method was used to recruit participants from several high schools located in the central regions of China. A total of 2982 participants (M(age) = 17.28, SD = 0.83, range 15~20 years; 1602 girls, 1380 boys) were included in the final analysis. RESULTS: Correlation analysis showed that participants possessing higher attachment security with parents were more likely to report lower levels of proactive and reactive aggression. And, self-control and perspective taking were positively associated with parental attachment, and negatively associated with both types of aggression. Moreover, structural equation models indicated that parental attachment directly, and indirectly predicted proactive and reactive aggression through self-control and perspective taking. DISCUSSION: Overall, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the explanatory mechanisms that link adolescent-parent attachment and aggression, and suggest that high quality of adolescent-parent interactions may promote adolescents’ self-control and perspectives taking, which further reduces their aggression propensity.