Wat is de relatie tussen de ervaren emotionele steun vanuit moeder en uitingen van agressie bij adolescenten in de vroege adolescentie? En wordt deze relatie gemedieerd door de aanwezige mate van empathie bij adolescenten?

Abstract

Aggression can be described as any act towards another person that causes hurt or harm. Being a user of aggressive behavior even as being a victim of aggression has a negative impact on adolescent’s life. Using aggression can lead to problems in daily life, but also has implications for future chances. In existing literature, the use of aggression has often been explained by individual factors. However, there is also evidence for predictors of aggression in the context of the child, such as parental characteristics. This study examined the relation between experienced maternal emotional support and adolescents’ aggressive behavior, and whether this relation is mediated by the empathic capacity of the adolescents. Data was collected from 492 adolescents (age 13-14, 56,6% girls and 43,1% boys) from the large RADAR project. Adolescents were asked to complete questionnaires assessing the perceived emotional support from mother, their level of empathy and aggressive behavior. To analyze the data PROCESS was used. The main findings showed that perceived emotional support from mother was a predictor of adolescents’ level of empathy and adolescents’ use of aggression. An association was found between adolescents’ level of empathy and adolescents’ use of aggression. This study found complete mediation between the researched variables. The discussion and conclusion show implications and strengths of the current study. Recommendations for further research are described.