Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Aggress Behav. 2024 Aug;50(5):e22171. doi: 10.1002/ab.22171.
Indirect aggression is commonly used in adulthood, but most researchers have focused on this behavior in romantic relationships or from an intrasexual competition perspective. Therefore, we aimed to understand the social characteristics and mental health correlates of indirect aggression by combining perspectives from developmental psychopathology and evolutionary psychology. We examined: (1) whether social characteristics (social comparison, hypercompetitiveness) contributed to indirect aggression (perpetration, victimization) and (2) whether there were indirect effects from indirect aggression (perpetration, victimization) to mental health difficulties through loneliness. In a cross-sectional sample of 475 young adults (57.7% women, 51.6% White, M = 20.2, SD = 2.18), path analyses revealed that social comparison predicted indirect aggression victimization, which indirectly predicted mental health difficulties (depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms) through loneliness. In contrast, indirect aggression perpetration was only predicted by hypercompetitiveness. The findings highlight that reframing cognitions associated with social comparison could help prevent indirect aggression and mental health difficulties among young people.
间接攻击在成年期很常见，但大多数研究人员都将这种行为集中在浪漫关系或同性竞争的视角上进行研究。因此，我们旨在结合发展心理病理学和进化心理学的观点，了解间接攻击的社会特征和心理健康相关性。我们研究了：（1）社会特征（社会比较、过度竞争）是否会导致间接攻击（实施、受害），以及（2）间接攻击（实施、受害）是否会通过孤独感对心理健康困难产生间接影响。在一项对 475 名年轻成年人（57.7%为女性，51.6%为白人，M=20.2，SD=2.18）的横断面研究中，路径分析显示，社会比较预测了间接攻击受害，而间接攻击受害又通过孤独感预测了心理健康困难（抑郁、焦虑、躯体症状）。相比之下，间接攻击的实施仅被过度竞争所预测。研究结果表明，重新构建与社会比较相关的认知可能有助于预防年轻人的间接攻击和心理健康困难。
