Aggression and depression are two intertwined major manifestations of psychosocial maladjustment among children and adolescents. The current study examined the temporal order of the intertwining of these two constructs across late childhood to middle adolescence, with focus of testing the failure model and acting out model by testing their mediating pathways. The sample was 2109 participants (1083 boys, 51.35%, mean age = 11.31 ± 0.49 years at time 1) who were followed from Grade 5 to Grade 9. Multi-informant approach of data collection (i.e. self, peer, school records) was employed. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) revealed that relational aggression at Grade 5 was associated with increases in depression at Grade 6, and academic problems mediated the longitudinal pathway from depression at grade 7 to physical and relational aggression at grade 9. The results were similar in boys and girls. Evidence supported the transactional longitudinal associations between aggression and depression, and the mediating pathways of academic failures in late childhood to middle adolescence.
Ji et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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