Children's anger attribution bias: Relations to family environment and social adjustment

We examined the relations of caregiver depression and family instability to preschool children's anger attribution bias and emotion attribution accura cy on a test of emotion situation knowledge. After controlling for age, gen der, and verbal ability, caregiver depression and family instability predic ted children's anger attribution bias but not the overall accuracy of their emotion attributions. We also divided children into groups tow and high an teacher reports of aggression and groups low and high on teacher reports o f peer rejection and examined the anger attribution bias of these groups. F or boys but not girls, greater anger attribution bias predicted higher leve ls of aggression. For all children, greater anger attribution bias predicte d higher levels of peer rejection. Results suggest that the misattribution of anger to others may be an important component of some children's early e motional and social difficulties.