Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, 3700 McTavish, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1Y2, Canada.
Département de Psychoéducation, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 Jan;49(1):77-89. doi: 10.1007/s10802-020-00708-6. Epub 2020 Sep 29.
Though conceptually distinct from other behavior problems, indirect aggression (IA) is correlated with physical aggression and is linked to oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder from childhood to adolescence. Thus, IA could be part of the clinical picture of children with identified conduct problems (CP). However, trajectories of IA have not been studied in children with CP. In the present study, we evaluated and compared the mean trajectory of IA from 7 to 14 years of age in children with (n = 328; 47.6% girls) and without (n = 320; 51.3% girls) early clinically significant CP using both parent and teacher ratings. We then examined if sub-groups of children distinguished themselves by their use of IA over time and tested for sex differences. Latent growth models showed that children with CP used IA at higher rates over time than children without CP. Regardless of this higher frequency, the use of IA in both groups of children was best described by down-turned curvilinear trajectories peaking at 10 years of age. Growth mixture models showed that children without CP, according to parent and teacher ratings, and children with CP, according to parent ratings, both followed two trajectories of IA over time, with, respectively, 10% to 14% of them following a high trajectory. As for sex differences, the use of IA of boys and girls without CP did not differ, but differences emerged for children with CP, with girls using IA more frequently. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
虽然间接攻击（IA）在概念上与其他行为问题不同，但它与身体攻击相关，并且与儿童期到青春期的对立违抗性障碍和品行障碍有关。因此，IA 可能是具有明确品行问题（CP）的儿童临床症状的一部分。然而，CP 儿童的 IA 轨迹尚未得到研究。在本研究中，我们使用父母和教师的评定，评估并比较了有（n=328；47.6%女孩）和没有（n=320；51.3%女孩）早期临床显著 CP 的儿童从 7 岁到 14 岁的 IA 平均轨迹。然后，我们检验了是否存在通过随时间使用 IA 来区分自身的亚组，并检验了性别差异。潜在增长模型表明，CP 儿童的 IA 使用率随着时间的推移而高于无 CP 儿童。尽管频率较高，但两组儿童的 IA 使用情况都以 10 岁时呈下降曲线轨迹最佳描述。增长混合模型表明，根据父母和教师的评定，无 CP 的儿童，以及根据父母的评定，CP 的儿童，随时间都有两种 IA 轨迹，分别有 10%至 14%的儿童跟随高轨迹。至于性别差异，无 CP 的男孩和女孩使用 IA 的情况没有差异，但 CP 儿童存在差异，女孩更频繁地使用 IA。讨论了这些发现的临床意义。
