Sense of control and adolescents’ aggression: T he role of aggressive cues

The misperception of aggressive cues is considered a risk factor for inducing adolescent aggression. Poor coping with life stress is also considered a major influence on aggression. The current study examined the relationship between subjective sense of control and adolescent aggression, considering influences upon the perception of these aggressive cues. In S tudy 1, 60 participants took part in a 2 (sense of control: high sense of control vs. low sense of control) × 2 (aggressive cue: aggressive vs. neutral) between‐subjects contextual experiment. The result found that a lower sense of control led to an increase in adolescents’ aggression; only in the low‐sense‐of‐control condition did exposure to aggressive cues boost aggression. In S tudy 2, the catalytic effect of aggressive cues was further explored by an experiment in which 40 adolescents were randomly assigned to a low‐ or high‐sense‐of‐control condition to test the importance of aggressive cues. The results suggest that adolescents in the low‐sense‐of‐control condition show a higher salience for aggressive cues.