The perpetration of violent crimes by our youth is a major societal concern and understanding the factors that predispose them to aggressive behavior is of the utmost importance. Therefore, research aimed at identifying risk factors of aggression among high-risk youth are needed for the purpose of informing future intervention strategies. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate cognitive risk factors that have been theorized and shown to play a contributory role in the development of aggression for less severe populations in a sample of male juvenile offenders (N = 119). More specifically, this study investigated the prediction of aggression and related antisocial behavior from youths' self-views (i.e., self-esteem, inflated self-perceptions) and an emotion regulation strategy (i.e., anger rumination) while taking into account personality factors (i.e., narcissism, trait anger) that have also been linked to aggression and share conceptual overlap with these constructs of interest. An evaluation of the psychometric properties of the study measures tapping these constructs provided evidence that these variables could be reliably and validly assessed among a sample of juvenile offenders. Most importantly, anger rumination, anger, self-esteem, and maladaptive narcissism were revealed as significant predictors of juvenile offenders' initial levels of aggression and developmental trajectories of aggression across a four month period. The implications of these findings are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2012. / June 18, 2012. / aggresssion, juvenile offenders, risk factors / Includes bibliographical references. / Janet A. Kistner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kevin Beaver, University Representative; Jeanette Taylor, Committee Member; Joyce Carbonell, Committee Member; Chris Schatschneider, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183120 |
| Contributors | Smith, Stephanie Dunkel, 1981- (authoraut), Kistner, Janet A. (professor directing dissertation), Beaver, Kevin (university representative), Taylor, Jeanette (committee member), Carbonell, Joyce (committee member), Schatschneider, Chris (committee member), Department of Psychology (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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