Reactive aggression among maltreated children: The contributions of attention and emotion dysregulation

Examined the complex interplay among emotion, attention, and aggression in a sample of 141 maltreated and 87 non-maltreated impoverished, inner-city c hildren. Data were collected during a summer day camp, which provided an ec ologically valid setting for studying children's behavior in social context s. Maltreated children were more likely than non-maltreated children to be aggressive, with findings suggesting that physically abused children were a t heightened risk for reactive aggression. Maltreated children also evidenc ed attention deficits, and subclinical or nonpathological dissociation was more likely among children who had experienced physical or sexual abuse. A history of abuse also predicted emotion dysregulation, affective lability/n egativity, and socially inappropriate emotion expressions. This emotion dys regulation, fostered by poor attention modulation, was a mechanism of the e ffects of maltreatment on reactive aggression.