Hostile attribution bias and adolescent depressive symptoms: the moderating role of negative legal emotions and a classroom-based video comparison

Background Negative legal emotions refer to adverse affective responses toward law, legal authorities, and legal institutions, although broader dispositional measures may also include evaluative and disengagement-related content. This two-study investigation examined whether dispositional negative legal emotions moderated the association between hostile attribution bias and depressive symptoms and whether state and dispositional negative legal emotions differed across two class-assigned video conditions. Methods In Study 1, 218 high school students ( M age = 15.67 years, SD = 0.63; 53.7% male) completed measures of hostile attribution bias, negative legal emotions, and depressive symptoms. Moderation analysis controlled for age, gender, and parental education. In Study 2, two intact Grade 10 classes were assigned at the class level to view either an approximately 5-minute negative legal-event video or a neutral instructional video. Eighty-three students completed the post-video Three-Item State Negative Legal Emotions Measure, and 74 provided complete matched pretest and posttest data on the full 22-item Negative Legal Emotions Scale. Results In Study 1, hostile attribution bias was positively associated with depressive symptoms, and negative legal emotions significantly moderated this association, accounting for an additional 3.2% of the variance. The association was nonsignificant at low levels of negative legal emotions, significant at the mean level, and stronger at higher levels. In Study 2, students in the class assigned to the negative legal-event video reported higher post-video state negative legal emotions than students in the class assigned to the neutral instructional video, t (81) = 4.12, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 0.91, 95% CI [0.53, 1.51]. In contrast, the class-assigned condition × time interaction for the full 22-item Negative Legal Emotions Scale was not significant. Because one intact class represented each condition, the observed between-class difference in state negative legal emotions cannot be attributed uniquely to the assigned video. Conclusions The findings suggest that a broader dispositional negative legal-affective/evaluative orientation may constitute an important psychological context in which hostile attribution bias is more strongly associated with depressive symptoms. Study 2 showed an observed difference between the two classroom video conditions in immediate state negative legal emotions, whereas no significant between-class difference was observed in pretest–posttest change on the broader dispositional measure. Taken together, the findings suggest that negative legal emotions may be relevant at both dispositional and state-sensitive levels. However, the present studies do not establish a causal pathway linking negative legal-event exposure, negative legal emotions, hostile attribution bias, and depressive symptoms.