Social Exclusion And College Students’ Aggressive Behavior:A Moderated Chain Mediation Model

Aggressive behavior is an individual’s intentional behavioral response to the physical and psychological harm of others,which will lead to cognitive dysfunction,poor academic performance,and more likely to bring many adverse effects in the growth and development of the individual.In the context of social rejection,individuals will have hostile negative perceptions and angry negative emotions towards the rejector,and even aggressive behavior towards the rejector.Since cognitive reappraisal is a protective factor for individual development and can significantly affect individual psychosocial adaptation,this study will explore the influence mechanism of social exclusion on aggressive behavior of college students from the perspective of cognition and emotion.This study consists of two sub-studies,Study 1 and Study 2.In the first study,382 college students were selected to explore the influence of long-term social exclusion on college students’ aggressive behavior,and to examine the mediating role of hostile cognition and trait anger and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal.The results show that:(1)There are differences in the social exclusion experience of college students in gender and whether they are single parents,that is,male college students encounter more frequent social exclusion experiences than female college students,and college students from single-parent families experience more social exclusion than non-single-parent families;Aggressive behavior differs in age,with older people increasing aggressive behavior;There were differences in the level of cognitive reappraisal in the location of the hukou,and the cognitive reappraisal strategy used more by urban hukou college students than those of college students with rural hukou.(2)Social exclusion can directly and positively predict aggressive behavior.Social exclusion positively predicts hostile cognition,hostile cognition predicts aggressive behavior,and hostile cognition plays a mediating role between social exclusion and aggressive behavior.Social rejection predicts trait anger,trait anger predicts aggressive behavior,and trait anger mediates between social exclusion and aggressive behavior.(3)Hostility cognition positively predicts trait anger,and hostility cognition and trait anger play a chain mediating role between social exclusion and aggressive behavior.(4)Cognitive reappraisal plays a moderating role between hostile cognition and trait anger.In the second study,126 college students were used to explore the influence of instant social exclusion on college students’ aggressive behavior,and to test the mediating role of hostile interpretation bias and state anger and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal.At the same time,combined with the questionnaire method,the influence of social exclusion on aggressive behavior at the long-term and immediate levels was further revealed,and the moderating mechanism of cognitive reappraisal in the chain mediation model was further revealed.The results of Study 2 show that:(1)Social exclusion can directly and positively influence aggressive behavior.Social exclusion positively affects hostile interpretation bias,hostile interpretation bias positively affects aggressive behavior,and hostile interpretation bias plays a mediating role between social exclusion and aggressive behavior.(2)Under the moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal,hostility interpretation bias and state anger play a chain mediating role in the influence of social exclusion on aggressive behavior of college students.That is,for the cognitive reappraisal group,social exclusion can have an impact on aggressive behavior through the chain mediation of hostile interpretation bias and state anger,while for the non-cognitive reappraisal group,the chain mediation effect does not exist.(3)Cognitive reappraisal can negatively moderate the effects of social exclusion on college students’ hostile interpretation bias.Cognitive reappraisal can negatively moderate the effects of state anger on aggressive behavior in college students.Cognitive reappraisal can negatively moderate the effect of social exclusion on aggressive behavior in college students.The above two studies verify that both past social exclusion and current immediate social exclusion have an impact on college students’ aggressive behavior,in which hostility and anger play the role of mediating variables,and cognitive reappraisal strategies play an important moderating role in the chain mediation path.The results enrich the research on social exclusion and aggressive behavior,and have a certain enlightening effect on mental health education in schools.