Is Social Mindfulness an Antidote to Early Adolescents' Aggressive Behavior in Daily School Life? The Moderating Role of Classroom Interpersonal Climate.

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to elucidate how fluctuations in social mindfulness were related to early adolescents' proactive and reactive aggressive behavior on a day-to-day basis. Daily (within-person) fluctuations and average between-person differences in classroom interpersonal climate were further examined as potential moderators of the aforementioned daily association, respectively.

Method: Using daily dairy procedures, 536 early adolescents (M_age = 10.40 years, SD = 0.94; 55.97% boys) completed a questionnaire once a day for 10 days.

Results: Daily increases in social mindfulness were linked to concurrent and next-day reductions in reactive but not proactive aggressive behavior. Daily increases in social mindfulness were associated with reductions in the next day's reactive aggressive behavior, particularly among those who perceived the classroom interpersonal climate as average or below average. Within-day links between social mindfulness and both types of aggressive behavior did not change whether the classroom interpersonal climate perceived by early adolescents was better or worse than usual.

Conclusions: These findings provide a valuable reference for the prevention and intervention of aggressive behavior in early adolescents, in which cultivating social mindfulness and fostering a friendly and supportive interpersonal climate in the classroom may represent promising avenues to explore.