Reactive - proactive aggression and parents emotion availability in adolescents: The mediator role of emotion regulation difficulties

In the present study, the mediator role of emotion regulation in the relationship between parental emotional availability and reactive-proactive aggression in adolescents was examined. The study was conducted in 8 high schools in the province of Adana and its central districts. The participants were 776 students (423 females and 353 males) who were ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. The researcher used the "Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire" (Raine et al., 2006) to collect the data related to adolescents' reactive-proactive aggression. The "Lum Emotional Availability of Parents (LEAP) Scale" (Lum and Phares, 2005) was used to measure parental emotional availability. The data related to the difficulties in emotion regulation was collected through using the "Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale" (Gratz and Roemer, 2004). The researcher developed "Personal Information Form" to elicit personal information of participants. The data was analyzed through Multiple Regression Analysis and Sobel Test. The results of the study revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between reactive-proactive aggression total score and difficulties in emotion regulation total score. Moreover, there was a negative and significant relationship between reactive-proactive aggression total score and parental emotional availability total score. It was revealed that emotional availability of father, inadequacies in the awareness of emotional reactions, and impulse control difficulty in negative emotion experiences were the main determinants for total aggression levels of adolescents. In addition, emotional availability of father, inadequacies in the awareness of emotional reactions, non-acceptance of emotional reactions, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, impulse control difficulty in negative emotion experiences, goal-oriented behaviors related to emotion regulation difficulty in negative emotion experiences were the main determinants of the proactive aggression levels of adolescents. Besides, emotional availability of father, inadequacies in the awareness of emotional reactions, non-acceptance of emotional reactions, and impulse control difficulty in negative emotion experiences were the main predictors of the reactive aggression levels. The results of the Sobel Test that was conducted to find out whether or not the emotion regulation difficulty had an impact on the relationship between proactive-reactive aggression and parental emotional availability revealed that the emotion regulation difficulty was a partial mediator between proactive-reactive aggression and parental emotional availability. Key Words: Reactive - proactive aggression, parental emotional availability, emotion regulation difficulty