Preschoolers' hostile attributional bias, aggressiveness, and attachment security.

• Project/Area Number: 11610153
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 教育・社会系心理学
• Research Institution: Akita University (2000); Miyazaki International College (1999)
• Principal Investigator: KATSURADA Emiko Akita University, Faculty of Education and Human Studies, Associate Professor, 教育文化学部, 助教授 (90291989)
• Project Period (FY): 1999 – 2000
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2000)
• Budget Amount: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000); Fiscal Year 2000: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000); Fiscal Year 1999: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
• Keywords: Child's aggressiveness / Social Information Processing model / Hostile attribution / Mothers' parenting behaviors / Mothers' daily hassles / Attachment security / Temperament / 就学前児童 / 攻撃性 / 偏った行動解釈 / 愛着

Research Abstract

Based on the Social Information Processing model postulated by Dodge (1980), Katsturada (1995) found a relationship between hostile attributional bias and aggressive behavior among American preschool children. The present study replicated Katsurada's study (1995) with 173 Japanese children (average age was 61 months old). In order to measure hostile attributional bias among Japanese preschoolers, videotaped vignettes of children's social interactions Were newly developed for this study. Then, the children judged the actor's intention in each videotaped vignette. The children's aggressiveness was assessed by their teachers and their mothers separately using the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (Behar ＆ Stringfield, 1974). By means of a questionnaire to the mothers, the children's attachment security, temperament, the mothers' parenting behaviors, and their daily hassles were measured and the relationships between these variables and children's aggressiveness were also investigated.
The r esults confirmed the association between children's tendency to attribute negative behavioral outcomes to hostile intention and their aggressiveness rated by their teachers. That tendency, however, was not related to the children's aggressiveness rated by their mothers. On the other hand, the children's attachment security, temperament, the mothers' parenting behaviors, and their daily hassles were directly or indirectly related to the children's aggressiveness rated by their mothers but not to their teachers' assessment. Thus, two different causal models for children's aggressiveness were suggested ; one for the mother-rated aggressiveness and the other for the teacher-rated aggressiveness.
Children's hostile attributional bias was not predicted by their attachment security and their mother's negative parenting behaviors, but predicted by their age and temperament (activity level). However, since the variability of hostile attributional scores accounted for by these variables (age and temperament) was small, a future study should explore other variables that may influence the children's hostile attributional bias.