Peer Influence on Anger Regulation in Adolescence

Adolescent aggression has severe psychological, social, and economic repercussions. Maladaptive forms of anger regulation and hostile attributions often underlie aggression. This project examines the role of peer interaction in influencing anger regulation and hostile attributions in adolescence. This research aims to advance understanding of how individual and interpersonal factors may work together to predict increases or decreases in youth aggression. This project contributes to workforce development by providing research training opportunities for students. This project uses short-term longitudinal design and observational methods to address three research aims. The first aim is to describe variation in adolescents’ anger and their attributions during discussions of a focal problem between friends. The second aim is to examine how attributions and anger influence adolescents’ problem perceptions and preference for aggressive strategies for the focal problem. The third aim is to examine how observed attributions and patterns of reported anger during problem talk predict changes in anger regulation, attributions, and aggression over one year. Towards these aims, the research team conducts observations of conversations between friend dyads over the course of one year, and collects other relevant data using adolescent and parent surveys. The findings of this project are expected to advance theories about peer influence and peer emotional socialization as well as to inform programs designed to prevent aggression and promote healthy peer relationships in adolescence. This project is jointly funded by Developmental Sciences Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.