Links between observational measures of children’s emotion and reactive versus proactive aggression

Theorists conceptualize reactive aggression as emotional (especially angry) and proactive aggression as unemotional (although it is unclear whether relations between proactive aggression and emotion are null or negative). Goals of the current study were to: (a) examine links between reactive aggression and a range of emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety), and (b) include neutral emotion to address whether proactive aggression is unrelated or negatively related to emotion. To assess emotion, playgroups of four same-sex, unfamiliar, nine-year-old children (N = 158; 52.5% males; racially/ethnically diverse) interacted as round-robin dyads while completing challenging and cooperative tasks; observers coded emotions second-by-second. To assess both behavioral and observational reactive-versus-proactive aggression, children completed video games with virtual peers. Reactive aggression was positively related to happiness, anger, and anxiety and negatively related to neutral emotion, for at least one task and one aggression measure. Proactive aggression was positively related to neutral emotion but negatively related to happiness, for both tasks and aggression measures. Findings enhance theoretical understanding of: (a) reactive aggression as broadly emotional by relating it to happiness and anxiety as well as anger, and (b) proactive aggression as unemotional by linking it to the display of neutral emotion and the lack of display of happiness.