Response Inhibition, anger regulation, self-efficacy about anger regulation, and aggressive behaviors in adolescence.

There is considerable evidence suggesting that adolescents who have greater response inhibition difficulties engage more in aggressive behaviors (e.g., Romer, 2010; Young et al., 2009). In addition, failure to use emotion regulation strategies in response to anger has fairly consistently been associated with adolescents’ aggressive behaviors (e.g., Blake & Hamrin, 2007). Moreover, evidence also suggests that among adolescents’ greater self-efficacy beliefs about anger regulation is associated with less aggressive behaviors (Di Giunta et al., 2017). The present study examines how response inhibition, anger regulation, and self-efficacy beliefs about anger regulation are associated with aggressive behaviors in adolescence. Pursuing this goal may lead to a better understanding of self-regulation-related processes in adolescence, which in turn could advance researchers’ knowledge of key targets for prevention and early intervention strategies seeking to thwart the adolescent onset of behavioral and mental health issues. Participants included 192 adolescents (M age = 14.25, SD = .66; 51% female) from the Parenting Across Cultures study (e.g., Lansford et al., 2014). Response inhibition difficulties were assessed with the amount of time that elapses (in milliseconds) between the presentation of each problem and the participants’ first move at the Tower of London task (Asato, Sweeney, & Luna, 2006; Steinberg et al., 2008). Anger dysregulation was self-reported via the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992). Self-efficacy beliefs were self-reported via the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (Caprara et al., 2008; Di Giunta et al., 2015). Aggressive behaviors were assessed via the Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991). Data were analyzed using multiple regression. Findings show the significant contribution of greater response inhibition difficulties, higher anger dysregulation, and lower self-efficacy beliefs in dealing with anger on aggressive problems in adolescence.