Table_1_A Bi-Dimensional Taxonomy of Social Responsivity in Middle Childhood: Prosociality and Reactive Aggression Predict Externalizing Behavior Over Time.DOCX

Developing social skills is essential to succeed in social relations. Two important social constructs in middle childhood, prosocial behavior and reactive aggression, are often regarded as separate behaviors with opposing developmental outcomes. However, there is increasing evidence for the co-occurrence of prosociality and aggression, as both might indicate responsivity to the social environment. Here, we tested whether a bi-dimensional taxonomy of prosociality and reactive aggression could predict internalizing and externalizing problems over time. We re-analyzed data of two well-validated experimental tasks for prosociality (the Prosocial Cyberball Game) and reactive aggression (the Social Network Aggression Task) in a developmental population sample (n = 496, 7–9 years old). Results revealed no associations between prosociality and reactive aggression, confirming the independence of those constructs. Interestingly, although prosociality and reactive aggression independently did not predict problem behavior, the interaction of both was negatively predictive of changes in externalizing problems over time. Specifically, only children who scored low on both prosociality and reactive aggression showed an increase in externalizing problems 1 year later, whereas levels of externalizing problems did not change for children who scored high on both types of behavior. Thus, our results suggest that at an individual level, reactive aggression in middle childhood might not always be maladaptive when combined with prosocial behavior, thereby confirming the importance of studying social competence across multiple dimensions.

社交技能的培养对于在社会关系中取得成功至关重要。在童年中期，有两类重要的社会建构：亲社会行为（prosocial behavior）与反应性攻击（reactive aggression），过往常被视为彼此独立且发展结果相悖的行为模式。然而，越来越多的证据表明亲社会倾向与攻击行为存在共现现象，因为二者均可反映个体对社会环境的响应性。本研究旨在验证：亲社会倾向与反应性攻击的二维分类模型，能否长期预测个体的内部化问题与外部化问题。我们针对一个发展群体样本（n=496，年龄7~9岁），重新分析了两项经过充分验证的实验任务数据——分别用于测量亲社会倾向的亲社会网络球游戏（Prosocial Cyberball Game），以及测量反应性攻击的社交网络攻击任务（Social Network Aggression Task）。研究结果未发现亲社会倾向与反应性攻击之间存在关联，证实了这两类社会建构的独立性。有趣的是，尽管亲社会倾向与反应性攻击各自均无法单独预测问题行为，但二者的交互作用可负向预测长期的外部化问题变化。具体而言，仅在亲社会倾向与反应性攻击两项得分均较低的儿童中，其外部化问题水平在1年后出现上升；而在两类行为得分均较高的儿童中，外部化问题水平未发生显著变化。综上，本研究结果表明：在个体层面，童年中期的反应性攻击若与亲社会行为并存，未必总是适应不良的，这也证实了从多维度视角研究社会胜任力的重要性。