Automaticity of aggression in male juvenile delinquents

Automaticity of aggression has been identified as important construct in the development and maintenance of adolescent aggression. This study set out to develop valid tools to measure this construct in adolescents and predicted that automaticity of aggression tasks would be correlated with multi-informant aggression instruments. 181 incarcerated male juvenile delinquents, 59.3% African-American, 36.1% Caucasian, and 4.5% Hispanic, with at least a 4th grade reading level participated in the study. Four computer tasks, an Implicit Memory Task, a Trait Evaluation Task, a Dot Probe Task, and an Aggression Themed Stroop Task, were utilized to assess automaticity of aggression. Only modest support was found for the hypothesis. However, all four tasks were very reliant upon the participants reading level, and when reading level was covaried out, the variance of aggression accounted for by the automaticity of aggression tasks was up to 18.7%. Since the cut off had originally been set at a 4th grade reading for participation in the study, all of the relationships were reexamined using only those with a 7th grade (or higher) reading level; the results were much more significant and accounted for more variance. The investigation successfully extends the literature on automaticity of aggression to adolescents. However, given the known links between adolescent aggression and reading deficiencies, a valid tool for the assessment of automaticity of aggression in adolescents should not depend on reading ability. Suggestions for overcoming this problem are outlined.