Cognitive coping strategies and aggression in adolescents

Abstract

The analysis of psychological factors associated with aggressive behavior of adolescents is an important area of research. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and physical aggression, anger and hostility in Polish and Ukrainian adolescents. The study involved 70 Polish and 63 Ukrainian teenagers aged 11 to 15. The research tools used in the study included the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire. It has been found that primarily maladaptive strategies are strongly associated with hostility and to a somewhat lesser extent with anger. Boys and girls hardly differ in the results of the studied variables within their cultures, which may indicate that gender does not differentiate the level of aggression and the frequency of using cognitive coping strategies. On the basis of the obtained results, it may be concluded that the main focus of preventive measures should be the development of effective coping skills. They should aim primarily at reducing the use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies such as self-blame, catastrophizing, rumination and blaming others.