Reactive and Proactive Aggression among Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Early Adolescents in Norway: The Relations to Emotional and Conduct Problems

Objective: This study explores the differences in the association between threedifferent types of aggression (reactive aggression, power-related proactive aggression and affiliation-related proactive aggression) and emotional and conduct problems between earlyadolescents with immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds in Norway. Methods: The sample comprised 1759 early adolescents in fifth to eighth grade (10- to 15-year-olds). The proportion of early adolescent immigrants with two foreign-born parents was862, and 897 participants were adolescents with two Norwegian-born parents. The genderdistribution was similar in the immigrant and non-immigrant samples, 48.2% boys and49.5% girls. The mean age was 11.6 years (SD 1.25) for immigrant boys, 11.7 (SD 1.29) fornon-immigrant boys, 11.6 (SD = 1.25) for immigrant girls, and 11.8 (SD = 1.27) for nonimmigrantgirls. Data were collected via self-report assessments. Results: A multigroup structural equation model revealed that the effects of reactive andproactive aggression were different for conduct and emotional problems. Only reactive andpower-related proactive aggression was significantly associated with conduct problems, andeffect sizes were independent of immigrant status. The effects of reactive and power-relatedproactive aggression on emotional problems were stronger for non-immigrant early adolescents,while the effects of affiliation-related proactive aggression were stronger for immigrant-background early adolescents. Conclusion: A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the associations betweenaggression and emotional problems and the variation between immigrant and nonimmigrantearly adolescents can shed light on the etiology of mental health and behavioralproblems. The importance of such knowledge in designing interventions targeting aggressionamong early adolescents in multicultural contexts is discussed.