Reactive aggression and low social preference versus proactive aggression: Differential autonomic reactivity to an anger-inducing social situation

This study investigated how reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and social preference in children relate to patterns of autonomic nervous system activity in an anger-inducing peer interaction situation. Hypotheses were that reactive aggression and low social preference would be positively related to autonomic reactivity, but that proactive aggression would be negatively related to autonomic reactivity and to baseline autonomic arousal. The investigators collected teacher ratings of reactive and proactive aggression and sociometric nominations for all children with parental permission in 33 second-grade classrooms. 76 of these children then participated in a standardized laboratory paradigm involving playing a game and losing to two confederate children, one of whom "cheats". Skin conductance and heart rate reactivity were measured during the game. Some measures of skin conductance reactivity were found to be positively related to reactive aggression, but negatively related to proactive aggression. Such relations were found when participants were losing games, but not when participants were winning. Most measures of heart rate reactivity, however, were not related to either form of aggression. No relation between autonomic reactivity and social preference was evident. Baseline autonomic arousal was not found to be related to proactive aggression. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.