A comparison of aggressive and withdrawn children's self-esteem, optimism and pessimism, and causal attributions for success and failure

Abstract

Aggressive children, withdrawn children, combined aggressive and withdrawn children, and children displaying neither aggressive nor withdrawn behavior were compared on three self-appraisal measures: (a) self-esteem, (b) attributions to ability and lack of ability following success and failure, and (c) optimism and pessimism about one's long-term personal future. From an initial sample of 583 elementary school children, independent and extreme groups were identified by combined ratings of teachers and classmates. Solely aggressive children had higher self-esteem than either solely withdrawn children or children who were both aggressive and withdrawn. The control group of children who were neither aggressive nor withdrawn had the highest self-esteem of all. The control group also attributed success to ability more than the two groups of children with high withdrawal scores but did not differ from the solely aggressive children. There were no significant differences among the groups in attributions to lack of ability following failure or in optimism or pessimism.