Developmental Cascades of Hostile Attribution Bias, Aggressive Behavior, and Peer Victimization in Preadolescence

The current research used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1104) to examine the developmental cascades of hostile attribution bias, aggressive behavior, and peer victimization in preadolescence. With the use of autoregressive latent trajectory model, this study disaggregated the between- and within-person effects. Between-person effects confirmed that hostile attribution bias, aggressive behavior, and peer victimization were positively associated with each other. Within-person effects showed that an increase from one's own typical growth trajectory of hostile attribution bias was predictive of a subsequent decrease from the individual's own trajectory of aggressive behavior; an increase from one's own typical growth trajectory of aggressive behavior was predictive of a subsequent decrease from the individual's own trajectory of peer victimization; an increase from one's own typical growth trajectory of peer victimization was predictive of a subsequent increase from the individual's own trajectory of hostile attribution bias. Implications for developmental cascade models, progressions, and preventive interventions were discussed.