Data for the manuscript entitled "The interrelation between family environment, attributional style and aggression related to emotional disorder among children and adolescents"

Emotional disorders are among the most common psychological conditions in children and adolescents. In child psychiatry, childhood emotional disorders refer to a range of emotional problems in individuals under the age of 18, including symptoms such as anxiety, depression, fear, and compulsions. Aggression is generally defined as intentional behavior aimed at harming others, causing physical or psychological injury. Behaviors that do not involve physical contact but are intentionally harmful—either directly or indirectly—are regarded as hostile acts. Most children’s aggressive behavior peaks before age three and then decreases as cognitive abilities and self-control develop. However, some children, due to poor emotional regulation, continue to display persistent aggression. According to social learning theory, children exposed to family violence may imitate aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, poor patterns of parent–child communication in adolescence can increase aggression frequency. Parental psychological control—where parents manipulate and constrain children’s thoughts and emotions without responding to their needs—has been identified as a significant risk factor for aggression. Attributional style describes an individual’s habitual way of explaining causes across situations. When facing different scenarios, people’s interpretations influence their subsequent behaviors. In children and adolescents, attributional style is a key cognitive factor influencing aggression. Highly aggressive youth often hold negative views, tending to interpret others’ behavior in a hostile manner. However, important data on the interrelation between family environment, attributional style and aggression which would guide management of aggression related to emotional disorder among children and adolescents remain scarce. This study aimed to determine: (1) the association between family environment, attributional style and aggression related to emotional disorder and (2) the mediation effect of attributional style on the relationship between family environment and aggression related to emotional disorder among children and adolescents.Our findings revealed that positive family environment such as good family cohesion, openness in emotional expression to family members, individual independence within the family, family orientated to achievement, culture and intellectual matters among members, family that place importance to morality and religion and well in organizing activities, as well as positive attributional style such as being optimistic alleviated aggression related to emotional disorder. While family conflict and negative attributional style (such as pessimism and hopelessness) aggravated aggression related to emotional disorder. Additionally, positive attributional style partially mediated the effect of positive family environment on mitigating aggression related to emotional disorder.