About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 8. Education, Schooling

Abstract

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Childhood aggression has been linked to numerous adverse outcomes across realms of functioning in adolescence and adulthood. One outcome includes academic functioning, such that children displaying elevated aggression frequently underperform academically relative to their non-aggressive peers (Vuoksimaa et al., 2021). The mechanisms through which aggression undermines academic performance are unclear; however extant literature often implicates an interplay of peer difficulties and problem behaviors in these pathways. For instance, peers exert great influence on students’ attitudes towards school and provide a necessary support system that will facilitate academic engagement (Stewart, 2008; Wentzel et al., 2021). Children high in aggression risk early peer rejection, which can lead to enduring feelings of loneliness and social isolation (Bornstein et al., 2010), thereby further compromising academic engagement and performance. Although research has examined broadly the relation between problem behaviors, social functioning, and academic outcomes, we know less about how aggression specifically relates to feelings of loneliness and school performance. Academic problems tend to compound over the school years, with early disparities in knowledge acquisition more pronounced by adolescence (Cascio and Staiger, 2012). Thus, it is critical to distinguish key intervention targets, at an early age. The present study will examine associations between child aggression at age 7 and GPA at age 15 through child-rated loneliness at age 10. We hypothesize that aggression at age 7 will predict lower GPA at age 15, as partially explained by greater feelings of loneliness at age 10.

Data (N = 201, 54.5% female, 66.2% White, 27.5% African American) was abstracted from the RIGHT Track project, a longitudinal study examining behavioral, social, and emotional functioning across development. Aggression was assessed using the parent form of the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004), loneliness through the Loneliness Scale (Cassidy & Asher, 1992), and GPA was obtained from school records. Mediation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS (Hayes, 2022) to examine associations between parent-reported aggression at age 7, child-reported loneliness at age 10 and grade point average at age 15. Results revealed that higher parent-rated aggression at age 7 was associated with lower GPA in 10th grade. We controlled for full scale IQ at age 7 given its relevance to academic performance. The indirect effect from aggression at age 7 to 10th grade GPA was significant through child-reported loneliness at age 10, B = -.05, SE = .03, 95% CI [-.11, -.001].

Findings from the present study align with earlier research linking aggression with adverse social and academic outcomes. The indirect effect of aggression on GPA through loneliness suggests that salient social consequences of aggression can influence adolescent academic performance, perhaps due to increases in peer influence during this developmental period. This insight underscores the interconnectedness of social, behavioral, and academic development and highlights a need for interventions to target social and emotional outcomes of aggressive behaviors to foster academic success.

Author information

Author	Role
Melissa Kravets, University of North Carolina at Greensboro	Presenting author
Susan Keane, Ph.D, University of North Carolina at Greensboro	Non-presenting author
Jessica Dollar, Ph.D, University of North Carolina at Greensboro	Non-presenting author
Lilly Shanahan, Ph.D, University of North Carolina at Greensboro	Non-presenting author

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