Using Positive Emotion Training With Maltreated Youths to Reduce Anger Bias and Physical Aggression

Abstract

Maltreated youths often overinterpret anger in others' emotional expressions, particularly expressions that are ambiguous, and this "anger bias" is associated with aggressive behavior. In the current experiment, we tested the effect of an emotion-training intervention on anger bias and subsequent aggression. Eighty-four youths, ages 8 to 17, who had been removed from home because of maltreatment and had screened positive for aggressive tendencies, served as participants. Over 4 days, youths completed positive emotion training, a computerized program in which youths classify emotional expressions. Youths in the treatment condition received feedback to encourage their recognition of happiness over anger in ambiguous expressions. Physical aggression up to 1 week posttraining was assessed on the basis of self- and staff reports. The intervention was effective in reducing youths' anger bias and somewhat so in reducing aggression-the latter of-which occurred infrequently, limiting power. Results offer direction for developmental research and cost-effective interventions for maltreated youths at risk for aggression and future justice-system involvement.

Keywords: aggression; anger bias; development; intervention; maltreatment.

Fig. 1.

Effect of positive emotion training (PET) on youths’ emotion-recognition thresholds by condition. Scores range from 0 to 15; lower scores reflect a greater negativity bias (i.e., tendency to perceive anger). Session 0 is baseline. Error bars represent ±1 SE.

Fig. 2.

The effect of condition and puberty on youths’ likelihood of physical aggression during training. Probability of physical aggression is plotted for each pubertal phase: Middle puberty represents the mean, early puberty represents 1 SD below the mean, and late puberty represents 1 SD above the mean. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. PET = positive emotion training.